2O         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

of  nature  is  a  poor  competitor  amid  the  loud 
acclaim  of  decimal  and  dogma.  After  I  was 
married,  many  of  my  relatives  and  friends 

in  L ,  observing  my  husband's  methods, 

came  to  him  for  counsel.  He  hammered  one 
relative  into  going  every  day  (several  miles) 
to  the  Exter  creamery,  even  with  empty  cans, 
if  need  be,  to  induce  others  to  join  him. 
He  placed  in  the  town  the  first  pure -bred 
bull,  and  now  several  others  have  followed. 
He  sold  cows  at  reduced  prices  to  get  herds 
started.  He  induced  another  relative,  who 
lives  on  the  homestead  and  is  making  money, 
to  take  his  grades  and  rear  them  as  an  object 
lesson.  He  went  to  the  Exters  and  pointed 
out  the  advantages  of  a  milk -station  in  that 
section.  'Get  something  started,'  he  would 
say;  'it  will  gather  strength  as  it  goes.'  Now 
they  have  the  skimming-station,  and,  for  the  first 

time  in  years,  L is  looking  men  squarely 

in  the  face.  The  'conversation'  is  changed. 
The  Exters  (splendid  characters)  have  at  last 
demonstrated  that  a  little  separator  in  a  cream- 
ery is  better  than  a  big  separator  in  a  church. 


The  Country  Folk     .  21 

"No  greater  error  could  be  made,  by  men 
of  intelligence,  than  to  cry  abandoned  farms 

when  abandoned  brains  is  meant.  L is 

a  beautiful,  fertile  valley.  The  neglected  farms 
are  effect,  not  cause.  The  abandoned  church 
and  the  abandoned-school-houses  are  standing 
directly  in  the  way  of  rural  progress  and  all 
the  efforts  of  agricultural  teachers  cannot 
overcome  the  loud  paternalism  of  these  two 
powerful  obsolete  institutions  that  stand  like 
feudal  castles  awaiting  the  dynamite  of  revel- 
ation. 

"But,  after  all  is  told— mark  this!  Out  of 
that  'God  forsaken'  town  have  come  the  best 
men,  the  most  sterling  characters  (independ- 
ent of  their  financial  troubles)  that  I  have  ever 
known.  The  happiest  years  of  my  life  were 
spent  there.  My  little  girl's  fine  father  was 
born  and  reared  there.  The  world  has  its  com- 
pensations. I  know  and  love  these  people,  and 
the  most  impressive  picture  I  will  ever  have  of 
the  great  Field  Shepherd  with  his  people  hov- 
ering about  him,  is  outlined  by  a  faded  wall  in 
that  farming  town." 


The  State  and 
the  Farmer 


By 

L.  H.  Bailey 


OF  THE 

UNWERBlH 

OF 

^ALIFOP^ 


gorfe 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON  :    MACMILLAN   &   CO.,  LTD. 


rights  reterved 


GENERAL 

Copyright,  1908 
By  The  Macmillan  Company 


Published,  July,  1908 


.$Dount  Pleasant 

J.  Horace  McFarland  Company 
fJarrisburg,  Pa. 

. 


Co 
ISAAC   PHILLIPS   ROBERTS 

—  FARMER,    TEACHER,    PHILOSOPHER 
AND    FRIEND  — 

31  offer  tfife  fcoofe 


UNIVERSITY 

• 


UNIVERSi' 


EXPLANATION 

THE  immediate  basis  of  this  book  is  a 
paper  on  "The  State  and  the  Farmer," 
originating  as  a  presidential  address  before  the 
Association  of  American  Agricultural  Colleges 
and  Experiment  Stations  at  Lansing,  Michi- 
gan, May  28,  1907.  Five  hundred  copies  of 
this  address  were  printed  by  order  of  the 
Association.  The  demand  continuing,  I  de- 
cided to  expand  the  principles  there  expressed, 
and  to  apply  them  to  a  somewhat  wider  range; 
in  doing  this  I  have,  of  course,  much  increased 
the  size  of  the  original  paper,  but  the  general 
motive  is  not  different.  That  paper,  in  turn, 
was  the  result  of  previous  papers  and  ad- 
dresses, some  parts  of  which  were  incorpor- 
ated in  it;  therefore,  some  of  the  arguments 
and  points  of  view  in  this  book  are  likely  not 
to  appear  to  be  new  to  those  readers  who 
have  followed  this  class  of  discussions.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  the  book  is  in  no  sense  a 
treatise,  but  only  a  budget  of  opinions  ;  and  I 


viii  Explanation 

am  well  aware  how  likely  it  is  for  opinions  to 
be  colored  by  the  particular  set  of  conditions 
under  which  one  works. 

L.  H.  BAILEY 
ITHACA,  N.  Y. 

MAY,  1908. 


OUTLINE 

PAGES 

The  Argument 1-4 

Governmental  interference 2 


I.  THE   AGRICULTURAL   SHIFT  .    .    .    5~54 

THE    GEOGRAPHICAL    SHIFT    IN    RURAL 

OCCUPATIONS 5~n 

The  apparent  reaction 8 

THE  SHIFT  IN  AGRICULTURAL  METHOD  .  11-15 
THE  SHIFT  IN  RURAL  INSTITUTIONS   .   .  15-21 

THE  " ABANDONED  FARM"  AS  AN  ILLUS- 
TRATION OF   THE  AGRICULTURAL 

SHIFT 22-54 

The  illusion  of  old  buildings 25 

Old  fields 29 

The  significance  of  the  general  situation  30 

The  situation  with  individual  farms  .    .  35 

Lack  of  adaptation 39 

Point  of  view  as  to  remedies 42 

The  outlook  for  the  hills  and  remote  lands        51 
(ix) 


x  Outline 

PAGES 

II.  SOCIETY  AND  THE  FARMER  .   .  55~i77 

THE  PROBLEM 56-73 

Saving  our  resources 56 

The  social  questions 61 

The  countryman 66 

Rural  needs 69 

THE    NATURE   OF   THE    SOCIAL    REME- 
DIES      73-176 

The  importance  of  the  personal  and  local 

initiative 74 

Agencies  of  heal  communication    ....  75 

Reconstructive  movements .    .  78 

The  kinds  of  help 80 

1 .  THE   DISCOVERY  AND  COLLATING  OF 

LOCAL   FACT 8l~86 

Agricultural  surveys 83 

The  model  farm  idea 84 

2.  DEVELOPING    PARTICULAR    PERSONS 

FOR    COMMUNITY  WORK 86-89 

3.  THE    GOVERNMENTAL    FUNCTION    IN 
AGRICULTURE 89-1 1 1 

State  departments  of  agriculture  ....         90 


Outline  xi 


PAGES 


A  new  statesmanship 92 

Attitude  of  state  governments 93 

The  state  government  part  and  the  fed- 
eral part 95 

States   rights IO2 

The  coordinating  agencies 104 

Coordination  of  educational  matters  .  106 

Coordination  of  agricultural  matters  .  109 

4.  THE  REDIRECTING  OF  RURAL  INSTI- 
TUTIONS     UI-I35 

The   necessity  for  working   together    .    .  114 

The    economic  organizations 116 

What  agricultural  societies  can  do  .    .    .  118 

Possible  extent  of  associative  work  ...  122 

Rural  government 125 

Application  of  public   money 126 

Banks 128 

Fairs 130 

The   rural  church 132 

5.  THE      DEVELOPING      OF     APPLICABLE 

EDUCATION        135-172 

Necessity  of  a  new  point  of  view    ...  136 


xii  Outline 

PAGES 

Importance  of  the  rural  school    ....  140 

(1)  The  subject  of  federal  aid  .    .    .  143 

(2)  The  consolidating  of  schools  .    .    .  147 

(3)  Special  agricultural  schools    .    .  150 
The   redirecting  of  the  rural  school   .    .  157 
The  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment 

stations 164 

The  extension  work  of  the  colleges  ...       169 

6.    APPEAL       TO       PERSONAL       LEADER- 
SHIP    172-176 


THE    STATE  AND  THE 
FARMER 

person  who  works  his  own  land  for 
JL  a  living  is  usually  a  strong  individualist. 
He  looks  to  the  earth,  rather  than  to  persons, 
for  his  livelihood.  He  does  not  cater.  If,  in 
any  country,  he  patronizes,  it  is  because  of  his 
social  position,  not  because  he  is  a  farmer. 

This  individualism  conduces  to  isolation  of 
ideas.  The  farmer's  work  is  founded  on  per- 
sonal experience;  and  when  he  is  not  able  to 
analyze  his  experience  or  to  understand  it,  he 
falls  into  the  experience-routine  of  the  season, 
and  his  ideas  become  crystallized. 

The  first  or  original  real  occupation  was  the 
management  of  land.  It  is  the  basic  occupa- 
tion. Out  of  it  most  other  occupations  and 
trades  have  developed.  The  constructive  and 
imaginative  spirits  took  to  these  newer  trades, 
and  the  conservative  forces  tended  to  remain 
on  the  land. 

(0 


2  The  State  and  the  Farmer 

As  the  demands  of  civilization  have  devel- 
oped, and  particularly  as  world-competition 
has  arisen,  the  isolation-ideals  of  the  land- 
worker  have  been  more  and  more  inadequate 
to  meet  the  conditions.  A  new  type  of  mind 
has  been  forced  on  him.  As  community-ideas 
have  evolved,  fellow  land-workers  have  assumed 
new  relations  to  each  other.  As  the  commun- 
ity-sense has  grown  into  nationalism,  and  as 
loyalty  to  the  person  of  a  local  leader  or  ruler 
has  developed  into  patriotism,  the  organization 
of  society — or  the  government — has  felt  the 
necessity  of  interfering  with  the  land-worker, 
as  with  other  workers,  for  the  benefit  of 
society  at  large. 

Governmental  interference. 

With  the  enlargement  of  the  necessities  of 
mankind,  and  the  organization  of  society, 
therefore,  the  land-worker  has  been  pressed 
by  two  opposite  and  somewhat  opposing 
forces, — the  necessity  of  improving  his  own 
practice,  and  the  necessity  of  being  compelled 
to  adopt  certain  methods  and  points  of  view 


Governmental  Interference  3 

in  the  interest  of  the  community  and  the  state. 
There  is  self-help  and  governmental  interfer- 
ence. The  inter-relationships  of  these  personal 
and  external  forces  constitute  one  of  the  most 
important  and  difficult  questions  concerned 
with  farming  and  politics.  They  are  questions 
of  adjustment  between  the  self-help  and  the 
state-help  forces  as  expressed  in  the  complex 
terms  of  present  society.  One  force  works 
from  the  inside  outward,  the  other  from  the 
outside  inward.  Both  are  essential.  I  propose 
to  examine  some  phases  of  these  questions 
that  are  suggested  by  current  movements  and 
discussions. 

Governmental  interference  with  persons  is  of 
two  kinds, —  that  which  concerns  the  larger 
relation  of  each  man  to  society  in  general,  and 
that  which  applies  directly  to  the  particular 
occupation,  trade  or  profession.  In  the  first 
division  are  questions  of  taxation,  tariffs,  con- 
duct and  the  fundamental  laws.  In  the  second 
division,  so  far  as  the  farmer  is  concerned,  are 
questions  of  agricultural  education,  regulation 
of  diseases  of  live-stock  and  crops,  the  estab- 


4  The  State  and  the  Farmer 

lishment  of  institutions  or  agencies — as  state 
stud  farms — that  provide  him  with  direct  facili- 
ties for  improving  his  methods,  and  special 
applications  of  general  laws.  It  is  only  some 
phases  of  the  second  class  of  governmental 
interference  that  I  propose  to  discuss  in  this 
volume,  although  I  suspect  that  some  of  the 
general  laws  need  rather  radical  overhauling, 
if  the  farmer  is  to  be  dealt  with  in  perfect 
justice.  My  present  theme  is  this:  What  is  it 
wise  and  legitimate  for  governments  to  do  in 
aid  of  the  farmer,  and  how,  in  general,  may  it 
be  accomplished  ?  In  developing  the  discus- 
sion, all  I  hope  to  do  is  to  establish  a  point  of 
view.  The  instances  and  examples  are  cited 
as  illustrations  of  what  I  mean  to  teach,  rather 
than  as  specific  problems  that  I  would  here 
work  out. 


A^S. 

OF  THE     ~         N 

{    UNIVERSITY  }  ' 

OF 

**£££2S££^ 

I 

The  Agricultural  Shift 

THE  condition  of  agriculture  and  country 
life  in  North  America  has  been  modified 
by  three  great  shifts, — the  shift  in  geograph- 
ical location,  in  methods  of  practice,  and  in 
institutions.  Some  of  the  more  obvious 
features  of  these  shifts  we  must  briefly 
examine. 

THE   GEOGRAPHICAL   SHIFT   IN    RURAL 
OCCUPATIONS 

Both  the  necessity  for  governmental  inter- 
ference and  the  nature  of  the  interference  are 
conditioned  on  the  status  of  the  rural  indus- 
tries at  any  particular  time.  We  are  all  aware 
that  we  live  in  a  time  of  great  shift.  The 
center  of  population  is  moving  westward,  and 
there  is  movement  from  country  to  city. 
Remote  lands  in  the  East  tend  to  lose  in 
population,  and  remote  lands  in  the  West 
tend  to  gain  in  population.  There  are  still 

(5) 


6  The  State  and  the  Farmer 

great  areas  of  new  development  and  conse- 
quently of  unstable  conditions.  The  geog- 
raphy of  markets  has  undergone  great  change. 
The  great  shift  in  the  East  has  come  about 
very  largely  as  a  result  of  free  trade  with 
the  West. 

The  popular  mind  has  pictured  a  great  de- 
cline in  eastern  agriculture  and  a  correspond- 
ing increase  in  efficiency  of  western  agriculture. 
This  opinion  is  founded  in  part  on  statistics 
and  in  part  on  the  larger  base  on  which 
western  agriculture  is  often  conducted.  This 
is  often  more  apparent  than  real.  We  may 
follow  some  of  the  statistical  comparisons 
between  New  York  and  some  of  the  corn-belt 
states  by  way  of  illustration,  and  later  we  shall 
endeavor  to  determine  the  significance  of  some 
of  the  changes.  Comparison  by  states  is,  of 
course,  always  indecisive  and  often  very  falla- 
cious, because  the  state  unit  is  not  uniform  in 
size,  population  or  general  condition ;  but  we 
have  no  better  way  at  present  of  making  rapid 
contrasts. 

In  1850,  1860  and  1870  New  York  held  first 


Shift  in  New  York  7 

place  in  the  value  of  farm  property.  In  1880 
it  lost  first  place  to  Ohio;  in  1890  it  took  third 
place,  being  exceeded  by  Illinois  and  Ohio;  in 
'1900  it  took  fourth  place,  being  exceeded  by 
Illinois,  Iowa  and  Ohio.  In  population  there 
has  been  a  marked  decline  in  rural  commun- 
ities. According  to  the  figures  of  Rossiter,  in 
1850  five  rural  counties  in  New  York  showed 
a  decrease  in  population;  in  1860,  nine;  in  1870, 
nineteen;  in  1880,  eight;  in  1890,  twenty-three; 
in  1900,  twenty-two;  in  1905  (state  census), 
twenty-one.  It  appears  that  forty-three  coun- 
ties have  shown  a  decrease  in  population  at 
some  period  during  the  past  century.  Twenty- 
eight  counties,  or  one-half  those  outside  the 
metropolitan  districts,  have  a  smaller  popula- 
tion today  than  they  have  had  rat  some  pre- 
vious time,  and  these  counties  represent  nearly 
one-half  the  entire  area  of  the  state.  There 
has  been  a  decline  under  the  maximum  of  more 
than  eighty  thousand  persons  in  the  rural 
counties  of  the  state.  Rural  communities  in 
some  parts  of  New  England  have  less  popula- 
tion today  than  they  had  one  hundred  years 


8  The  State  and  the  Farmer 

ago.  This  decline  seems  to  be  expressed  (i) 
in  migration  of  population  to  cities  and  to 
other  regions;  (2)  in  lower  birth-rate. 

Between  the  years  1880  and  1900  there  was 
an  annual  decrease  in  value  of  farm  prop- 
erty, if  the  census  figures  are  comparable, 
of  seven  and  one-third  millions  of  dollars. 
For  the  same  period  there  was  an  annual 
decrease  in  the  value  of  land  and  improve- 
ments of  nearly  eight  and  one-half  millions 
of  dollars.  Similar  apparent  depreciation  oc- 
curred in  other  eastern  states.  In  Ohio,  for 
example,  the  shrinkage  of  land  values  from 
1880  to  1900  amounted  to  more  than  sixty 
millions  of  dollars. 

The  apparent  reaction. 

It  should  be  said,  before  passing  this  sub- 
ject, that  it  may  be  a  question  whether  the 
census  figures  of  the  different  years  are  in  all 
respects  comparable.  Conditions  of  money 
and  of  values  are  not  the  same  at  any  two 
twenty-year  periods.  In  1880,  we  may  not  yet 
have  passed  altogether  the  inflated  values  of 


Gain  in  the  East  9 

the  war  period.  These  census  figures  are  now 
old  and  great  changes  have  taken  place  in  the 
seven  or  eight  years  since  the  more  recent 
ones  were  made.  Some  of  these  changes  seem 
to  be  indicated  in  the  most  recent  figures.  A 
current  discussion  of  "changes  in  farm  val- 
ues "  published  by  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  and  covering  the  years 
1900  to  1905,  makes  a  very  different  showing 
from  those  that  we  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
quoting.  These  figures  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  are  estimates  and  computations, 
and  I  do  not  know  whether  they  or  the  cen- 
sus figures  more  accurately  represent  the 
exact  status  of  agricultural  conditions.  Even 
for  the  census  year  1900,  the  differences  in 
values  as  reported  by  the  census  and  as  com- 
puted by  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
amounted  for  New  York  state  to  nearly 
ninety-nine  millions  of  dollars  for  the  value  of 
land  and  improvements,  including  buildings. 
The  computations  of  the  Department  as  be- 
tween the  years  1900  and  1905  show  a  gain  in 
similar  values  for  the  state  of  New  York  of 


io        The    State  and  the  Farmer 

more  than  one  hundred  and  eighty  millions  of 
dollars.  In  more  specific  categories,  the  fol- 
lowing figures  from  the  same  source  show  that 
there  is  a  decided  increase  in  farm  values  and, 
therefore,  presumably  in  farm  efficiency.  The 
values  of  "medium  farms"  per  acre  for  the 
years  1900  and  1905  in  New  York  in  the  dif- 
ferent classes  of  farming  are  as  follows: 

1900  1905 

Hay  and  grain  farms $40  29  $44  38 

Live-stock 33  83  37  94 

Dairying 46  81  58  86 

Fruit 70  87  84  46 

Vegetables 69  98  81  91 

General  farming     . 38  98  44  oo 

The  percentage  increase  of  real  estate  value 
of  such  farms  in  the  state  for  the  years  1900  to 
1905  are  represented  by  the  following  figures: 

1900-1905 

Per  cent 

All  medium  farms 18.3 

Hay  and  grain 10.2 

Live-stock 12.1 

Dairy  farms 25.7 

Fruit i9-2 

Vegetables      17-0 

General  farming 12.9 


Thes 


Change  in  Methods  11 


These  various  figures  are  given  here  merely 
to  illustrate  the  fact  that  the  geographical  base 
of  agriculture  has  changed  and  that  it  may  be 
expected  still  further  to  change ;  and  that  a 
reaction  is  likely  to  follow  a  great  shift.  Any 
shift  of  considerable  area  is  likely  to  affect 
some  localities  disadvantageously. 

THE   SHIFT   IN   AGRICULTURAL   METHOD 


Farming  exhibits  the  remarkable  changes 
that  have  taken  place  in  the  last  fifty  years 
in  the  modes  of  doing  work.  The  plow  is 
still  called  a  plow  and  for  the  most  part  it 
is  yet  drawn  by  horses  (as  it  will  continue  to 
be  drawn);  but  even  the  plow  is  a  very  differ- 
ent implement  from  its  predecessor  of  a  gener- 
ation ago.  Few  implements  are  more  perfect 
than  the  present-day  plow  in  the  application  of 
mechanical  principles  and  in  workmanship. 
The  slight  variations  in  the  slope  and  shape  of 
the  moldboard  and  in  the  construction  of 
other  parts,  produce  marked  results  in  the 
effect  on  the  physical  condition  of  the  plowed 
land.  The  chilled  steel  construction  has  pro- 


12          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

duced  an  implement  of  new  adaptabilities. 
The  plow  has  come  to  be  a  construction  of 
lightness,  grace  and  beauty,  and  of  great  effec- 
tiveness. 

Most  agricultural  tools  have  shown  a  similar 
evolution.  Even  the  common  fork  has  under- 
gone marked  change.  Light  hand  tools  are  of 
many  new  kinds  and  forms.  But  it  is  in  the 
range  of  machinery  that  the  change  appeals  most 
to  the  imagination.  To  be  sure,  the  great  devel- 
opment of  farm  machinery  has  been  mostly 
for  the  easy  conditions  of  level-area  farming 
and  for  the  more  wholesale  operations,  but  the 
development  has  been  marvelous  nevertheless. 
The  mere  mention  of  the  names  of  some  of 
the  farm  machines  will  recall  how  great  the 
change  has  been :  from  the  sickle  to  the  cradle, 
to  the  reaper  and  self-binder;  from  the  scythe 
to  the  mowing-machine;  the  hay-rakes  and 
hay -loaders;  all  the  hay  forks  and  stackers; 
the  corn-harvester;  the  great  separators  or 
threshers ;  the  sowers,  planters  and  transplant- 
ers; manure-spreaders;  the  grinders  and  feed- 
mills  ;  power  ditching-machines;  the  spraying 


Shift  Due  to  Machinery  13 

machines ;  the  new  kinds  of  vehicles ;  all  the 
multitude  of  special  milk-manipulating,  butter- 
working  and  cheese-making  devices;  the  adap- 
tation of  steam,  gasolene  and  even  electric 
power;  and  the  marvelous  range  and  beauty 
of  tilling  implements  and  machines.  Within 
fifty  years,  the  cost  of  producing  a  bushel  of 
corn  has  been  reduced  by  two-thirds ;  a  ton  of 
hay  by  nearly  as  much ;  and  of  other  products 
in  similar  proportion. 

The  change  is  probably  even  more  remark- 
able in  the  farmer's  attitude  toward  the  rea- 
sons that  underlie  his  work,  although  this 
shift  does  not  appeal  so  much  to  the  popular 
imagination.  His  attitude  toward  soil  fertil- 
ity has  undergone  a  complete  change ;  so  has 
his  attitude  toward  the  feeding  of  animals 
and  the  treatment  of  their  ailments ;  so  has  it 
toward  diseases  of  plants  and  toward  the 
insects.  He  speaks  a  new  language.  Even 
when  the  old  farm  seems  to  show  no  visible 
change  in  external  matters,  the  farmer  himself 
cannot  avoid  attacking  his  problems  in  a  new 
way.  Butter-fat  is  a  reality.  There  are  new 


14         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

crops  on  his  land — alfalfa,  cowpeas,  crimson 
clover,  macaroni  wheat.  If  he  lives  in  the 
northeastern  market-milk  section,  he  has  seen 
the  red  and  brindle  cow  change  to  black  and 
white;  he  has  developed  the  winter  production 
of  milk  and  has  made  the  silo  a  part  of  his 
farm  scheme.  He  has  a  new  conception  of 
cleanliness,  as  a  result  of  the  studies  in  bac- 
teria. He  has  a  rational  outlook  on  potato 
blight  and  oat  smut  and  codlin-moth.  He  has 
respect  for  ideas  in  print,  because  the  ideas 
are  worthy  of  respect.  All  this  changes  his 
methods  of  work. 

With  all  these  great  shifts  in  the  methods  of 
farming,  it  is  natural  to  expect  unequal  shifts  in 
effectiveness  of  the  business,  for  some  persons 
react  responsively  to  such  changes  and  others 
do  not.  The  least  adaptable  persons  find  their 
lot  harder  by  competition  with  the  others. 
Profound  changes  have  resulted  in  the  whole 
attitude  of  the  man  toward  his  business. 

These  shifts  in  mental  attitude  are  largely 
the  direct  result  of  the  colleges  and  experi- 
ment stations  and  bureaus  devoted  to  agricul- 


• 

ture; 


Changes  in  Country  Institutions     15 


ture;    and   herein    is  the    one  great    aid    that 
society  has  rendered  to  the  countryman. 

THE     SHIFT     IN    RURAL    INSTITUTIONS 

It  requires  no  imagination  to  see  that  rural 
life  is,  in  some  respects,  in  a  state  of  arrested 
development,  as  compared  with  the  cities 
and  towns.  The  native  institutions  have  been 
copied  in  cities  and  greatly  extended ;  the 
rural  population  now  looks  beyond  its  own 
institutions  to  those  of  the  city, —  to  the  city 
school,  the  city  church,  the  city  library,  the 
city  stores,  the  city  amusements.  The  great 
constructive  movements  of  the  day  have  passed 
the  country  by.  The  nativeness  of  rural  in- 
stitutions has  been  allowed  to  die  out,  and 
the  country  has  been  left  socially  sterilized. 
Centers  of  interest  are  elsewhere.  In  many 
regions,  the  farmer  will  talk  politics,  war  and 
city  questions  and  anything  else  rather  than 
farming.  I  would  not  have  my  reader  feel, 
however,  that  this  is  peculiar  to  these  later 
days.  I  well  remember  vehement  discussions 
whether  the  pen  is  mightier  than  the  sword, 


16         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

but  I  never  heard  a  debate  on  the  plow,  which 
is  really  mightier  than  either. 

Many  great  economic  and  social  changes 
have  directed  the  attention  of  all  the  people 
cityward.  Canals,  railroads,  telegraphs,  postal 
routes  have  drained  the  country  into  the  city. 
Wealth  has  been  piled  up  at  the  terminals, 
which  are  the  trading  places,  until  society  has 
become  ganglionic  in  its  organization.  Bank- 
ing systems  take  the  money  from  the  hands 
of  those  who  earn  it,  and  put  it  into  the 
hands  of  those  who  trade  with  it.  The  earn- 
ings tend  to  leave  the  place  of  their  origin  to 
build  up  remote  or  aggregated  interests.  The 
organizations  that  control  farmers  by  control- 
ling their  products  are  in  the  cities.  The 
tariff-for-protection  system  has  fostered  this 
general  aggregational  movement.  It  has  tended 
to  the  concentration  of  wealth.  If  it  has  aided 
the  farmer,  it  is  because  it  has  aided  some 
one  else  first  and  more. 

We  have  been  living  in  an  epoch  of  city 
development,  with  no  adequate  means  of  re- 
distributing or  returning  the  energy  to  the 


Epoch  of  the  Small  City  17 

regions  of  its  origin.  It  has  been  a  process 
of  dump.  We  are  now,  however,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  species  of  rural  drainage,  con- 
sequent on  the  wide  extension  of  highway 
building,  of  trolly  lines,  of  rural  free  deliver- 
ies, of  telephones  and  other  local-centering 
agencies.  In  other  words,  we  are  now  enter- 
ing the  epoch  of  the  small  city;  into  these 
cities  the  surrounding  country  now  will  drain. 
This  will  develop  new  centers  of  influence, 
with  a  consequent  shift  of  the  social  equilib- 
rium. This  condition  is  being  aided  from  the 
city  itself  in  the  rapid  growth  of  suburbanism. 
These  new  conditions  constitute  one  step  to- 
wards vitalizing  the  open  country,  but  of 
themselves  they  will  not  reach  the  open  coun- 
try effectively. 

Among  existing  rural  institutions,  the  church 
and  the  school  should  have  most  influence ; 
yet  the  rural  church  is  largely  inert  or  lost, 
and  the  school  is  in  a  state  of  arrested  devel- 
opment. Following  a  discussion  of  abandoned 
farms  in  one  of  the  eastern  states,  a  farmer's 
wife,  long  a  teacher  and  leader,  wrote  me  the 
B 


i8          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

following  letter;  this  letter  I  publish  because 
it  is  an  expression  of  the  way  in  which  some 
of  these  questions  appeal  to  an  experienced 
person  on  the  spot;  how  widely  it  applies  I 
do  not  know. 

"The  neglected    farms   of  L should 

not  be  charged  against  either  indolence  or 
agriculture,  because  the  main  business  of  the 
township,  extending  over  a  period  of  twenty 
years  or  more,  has  been  a  religious  war.  There 
are  three  churches  in  the  Town  Center,  repre- 
senting as  many  denominations.  Sometimes 
one  has  flourished,  sometimes  another,  but 
sentiment  respecting  all  of  them  is  ever  active. 
I  have  known  crops  to  be  neglected,  work 
delayed,  families  divided,  while  the  combatants 
awaited  the  outcome  of  some  petty  squabble 
over  church  affairs.  One  not  familiar  with 
conditions  can  hardly  imagine  the  littleness  of 
the  superannuated  gospel -splitters  who  are 
often  sent  to  such  outlying  parishes.  The  war 
has  been  a  continuous  one  for  years.  One  pas- 
tor after  another  departed,  in  dudgeon,  to  have 
the  combat  renewed  by  the  next  one.  This  is 


The  Church  and  School     19 

all  matter  of  public  record,  if  any  one  wishes 
to  inform  himself.  You  may  or  may  not  have 
knowledge  of  this,  but  it  is  not  a  local  phase. 
It  is  my  firm  belief  that  this  is  the  situation  in 
other  'abandoned  farm'  districts  if  the  truth 
were  known. 

"Much  the  same  thing  can  be  said  of  the 
schools.    You  will   not    agree   with    me,   but 

after  spending   some   years    in   L ,  and 

having   been   reared   in  a   family  of  teachers, 

I  am  convinced  that  the  schools  also  are  often 

, 

'abandoned.'  School  officers  may  be  too  busy 
working  their  own  farms  and  interests.  They 
often  have  not  the  first  idea  of  broad  policy 
or  even  worthy  public  duty.  I  am  not  sure 
but  that  the  farm  might  produce  men  of  bet- 
ter caliber  if  we  could  ever  get  rid  of  the 
theory  that  grammar  is  more  important  than 
death  or  taxes.  No  close  study  of  the  town  of 
L—  -  is  needed  to  note  the  marked  mental 
degeneracy  of  its  younger  members  against 
the  earlier  men. 

"And  Agriculture?    Well,  no  one  ever  built 
a  church  or  school  for  agriculture.   The  silence 


20         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

of  nature  is  a  poor  competitor  amid  the  loud 
acclaim  of  decimal  and  dogma.  After  I  was 
married,  many  of  my  relatives  and  friends 

in  L ,  observing  my  husband's  methods, 

came  to  him  for  counsel.  He  hammered  one 
relative  into  going  every  day  (several  miles) 
to  the  Exter  creamery,  even  with  empty  cans, 
if  need  be,  to  induce  others  to  join  him. 
He  placed  in  the  town  the  first  pure -bred 
bull,  and  now  several  others  have  followed. 
He  sold  cows  at  reduced  prices  to  get  herds 
started.  He  induced  another  relative,  who 
lives  on  the  homestead  and  is  making  money, 
to  take  his  grades  and  rear  them  as  an  object 
lesson.  He  went  to  the  Exters  and  pointed 
out  the  advantages  of  a  milk -station  in  that 
section.  'Get  something  started,'  he  would 
say;  'it  will  gather  strength  as  it  goes.'  Now 
they  have  the  skimming-station,  and,  for  the  first 

time  in  years,  L is  looking  men  squarely 

in  the  face.  The  'conversation'  is  changed. 
The  Exters  (splendid  characters)  have  at  last 
demonstrated  that  a  little  separator  in  a  cream- 
ery is  better  than  a  big  separator  in  a  church. 


The  Country  Folk 

"No  greater  error  could  be  made,  by  men 
of  intelligence,  than  to  cry  abandoned  farms 

when  abandoned  brains  is  meant.  L is 

a  beautiful,  fertile  valley.  The  neglected  farms 
are  effect,  not  cause.  The  abandoned  church 
and  the  abandoned-school-houses  are  standing 
directly  in  the  way  of  rural  progress  and  all 
the  efforts  of  agricultural  teachers  cannot 
overcome  the  loud  paternalism  of  these  two 
powerful  obsolete  institutions  that  stand  like 
feudal  castles  awaiting  the  dynamite  of  revel- 
ation. 

"But,  after  all  is  told— mark  this!  Out  of 
that  'God  forsaken'  town  have  come  the  best 
men,  the  most  sterling  characters  (independ- 
ent of  their  financial  troubles)  that  I  have  ever 
known.  The  happiest  years  of  my  life  were 
spent  there.  My  little  girl's  fine  father  was 
born  and  reared  there.  The  world  has  its  com- 
pensations. I  know  and  love  these  people,  and 
the  most  impressive  picture  I  will  ever  have  of 
the  great  Field  Shepherd  with  his  people  hov- 
ering about  him,  is  outlined  by  a  faded  wall  in 
that  farming  town." 


22          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

THE   "  ABANDONED    FARM "   AS    AN    ILLUSTRA- 
TION  OF  THE   AGRICULTURAL   SHIFT 

The  process  of  the  shift  in  occupancy  of 
land  has  resulted  in  the  desertion  of  some 
areas  for  customary  agricultural  uses.  Home- 
steads have  become  unoccupied  and  the  build- 
ings have  fallen  into  ruin.  To  this  condition 
the  name  "  abandoned  farms "  has  been  ap- 
plied. The  words  are  inexact,  since  the  land 
is  really  not  abandoned,  but  belongs  to  some 
one,  and  is  still  classed  as  property;  but  the 
term  has  become  so  well  fixed  in  the  public 
mind  that  it  expresses  phases  of  our  contem- 
porary agriculture  better  than  any  other  phrase. 
I  therefore  use  the  term  for  convenience,  to 
express  the  idea  of  the  lessening  present  use 
of  certain  lands,  and  also  because  it  enables 
me  to  arrive  at  my  subject  without  tedious  ex- 
planation. 

In  the  discussion  of  abandoned  farms,  we 
have  usually  confused  the  economic  and  personal 
results.  Our  regret  for  the  abandonment  of 
these  farms  is,  in  fact,  largely  sentimental.  We 


The  Abandoned  Homestead         23 

are  thinking  of  the  human  lives  that  have  been 
lived  in  the  stark  old  houses,  where  the  wind 
blows  through  the  creaky  roofs  and  into  the 
openings  that  once  were  windows  and  doors. 
We  are  impressed  by  the  ancient  orchards, 
with  bleaching  limbs  and  rotting  trunks.  Gen- 
erations ago,  perhaps,  the  good-man  and  his 
wife  hewed  the  farm  from  the  wilderness, 
erected  the  laborious  buildings,  and  planted 
the  cider-apple  trees  between  the  rocks.  A 
little  brood  was  reared.  One  by  one  the  child- 
ren went  out  over  the  hills  and  made  homes 
for  themselves;  but  one  of  them  remained  on 
the  old  farm,  cherishing  the  old  rocks  and  liv- 
ing content  under  the  old  roof-tree.  The  old 
place  became  more  hallowed  with  the  years. 
Even  the  decay  of  the  old  house  passed  un- 
noticed. What  was  the  neglect  and  dilapida- 
tion to  the  visitor  from  the  city,  was  the  object 
of  veneration  and  sacred  memories  to  the 
owner.  But  finally  no  youngster  clung  to  the 
homestead.  One  went  to  the  city  store,  an- 
other on  the  railroad,  another  took  to  sea,  and 
another  went  west.  Age  overtook  the  old 


24         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

folks.  The  bushes  encroached  on  the  back  lot. 
The  stone  walls  fell  to  ruin.  The  kitchen 
roof  tilted  and  fell  in.  The  old  folks  died. 
The  house  was  closed.  The  stripling  forest 
overran  the  orchard  and  the  garden.  The 
tansy  now  haunts  the  old  dooryard. 

I  have  no  desire  to  analyze  at  this  time  the 
causes  of  the  so-called  abandonment  of  farms, 
or  to  make  any  close  study  of  the  results ;  I 
wish  only  to  call  attention  to  some  of  the 
grosser  features  of  the  movement,  with  the 
purpose  of  establishing  a  point  of  view  for 
my  reader  on  some  of  the  coming  relations 
between  the  state  and  the  farmer. 

The  "abandoned  farm"  question  is  supposed 
to  be  an  eastern  question,  and  in  a  way  it  is 
so :  that  is,  relatively  difficult  lands  were  set- 
tled in  the  East  because  other  lands  were  not 
available;  the  adjustment  to  changing  condi- 
tions comes  first,  of  course,  in  the  older 
communities,  and  the  older  the  community 

£ 

the  slower  the  adjustment  is  likely  to  be. 
Similar  questions  are  pressing  agriculture 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  however,  so  that 


The  Deserted  Buildings  25 

the  eastern  question  is  only  a  phase  of  con- 
tinental or  even  world-wide  questions.  The 
farming  in  the  great  agricultural  West  has 
been  easy,  and  it  has  therefore  risen  with 
phenomenal  rapidity.  The  greatest  skill  in  the 
end  develops  under  the  greatest  difficulty.  The 
West  has  set  the  East  many  good  examples  of 
agricultural  practice.  It  will  not  be  surprising 
if  the  East  works  out  some  of  the  difficult 
social  problems,  and  makes  a  close  adjustment 
of  agricultural  practice  to  local  conditions. 

The  illusion  of  old  buildings. 

A  common  measure  of  the  supposed  decline 
of  farming  is  the  fact  that  many  farms  can 
now  be  purchased  for  less  than  the  buildings 
cost.  This  statement  of  itself  does  not  appeal 
to  me  as  having  any  special  significance.  A 
property  is  likely  to  sell  for  what  it  is  worth, 
and  this  worth  depends  on  its  effectiveness  as 
an  economic  unit  or  enterprise.  Most  of  the 
buildings  on  these  farms  were  erected  a  gener- 
ation or  more  ago,  when  the  ideas  of  farming 
were  radically  different  from  those  of  the  pres- 


26          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

ent  day.  It  is  doubtful  whether  most  of  these 
buildings  were  ever  really  effective  even  for 
the  old  kind  of  agriculture.  At  all  events,  few 
of  them  are  adapted  to  the  business  that  we 
must  now  conduct  on  the  land.  Many  a  farm 
would  really  be  worth  more  with  the  buildings 
off  than  with  them  on,  for  they  would  not  then 
stand  in  the  way  of  actual  betterment.  Build- 
ings are  not  permanent  attachments  to  land 
and  should  not  be  so  regarded.  A  country- 
man is  always  impressed,  when  he  goes  to  the 
great  cities,  with  the  fact  that  buildings  still  in 
good  state  of  preservation  are  torn  down  to 
make  place  for  new  ones.  These  demolished 
buildings  may  not  even  be  very  old,  but  they 
are  ineffective  for  present-day  business  and  it 
is  unprofitable  to  keep  them.  The  coming 
business  of  farming  will  demand  a  wholly  new 
type  of  building  in  order  to  make  the  prop- 
erty effective,  and  we  must  overcome  our  habit 
of  harking  back  to  the  time  when  the  present 
buildings  were  erected.  Barns  and  other  busi- 
ness buildings  that  were  erected  fifty  or  sixty 
years  ago  should  owe  the  farm  nothing  by  this 


Deserted  Farm  Buildings  27 

time.  My  reader  must  realize  the  fact  that  we 
are  beginning  a  new  agriculture,  not  continuing 
an  old  one. 

We  must  be  careful,  also,  not  to  be  misled 
merely  by  the  appearance  of  farm  property. 
The  mere  abandonment  of  farm  buildings  may 
or  may  not  be  a  cause  of  apprehension  and 
regret.  Buildings  may  be  abandoned  because 
two  or  more  properties  have  been  combined 
into  one  and  not  so  many  buildings  are  now 
needed ;  or  because  the  farmer  has  moved 
from  an  old  building  into  a  new  and  better 
one.  In  many  parts  of  the  East,  the  buildings 
are  no  doubt  too  many  and  the  farm  proper- 
ties too  small  for  the  greatest  effectiveness. 
These  properties  were  laid  out  or  divided  at 
a  time  when  the  great  West  was  unknown  and 
when  these  eastern  lands  grew  the  grain  and 
other  tilled  crops  for  the  large  markets.  Some 
of  them  were  probably  laid  out  in  their  pres- 
ent form  in  war  time,  when  conditions  were 
wholly  abnormal.  Many  of  the  buildings  were 
erected  when  lumber  and  other  materials  were 
cheap  and  when  the  comforts  and  facilities 


28         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

now  placed  in  barns  and  residences  were 
unknown.  Moreover,  deserted  farm  buildings 
are  likely  to  stand  until  they  fall  down.  In 
cities,  land  and  location  are  valuable,  and  old 
buildings  are  torn  down  to  make  room  for 
the  new  structures.  Therefore,  the  country 
contrasts  strongly  with  the  city  in  respect  to 
its  buildings.  The  staring  and  windowless 
farmhouses  appeal  to  the  imagination  of  the 
town  visitor,  and  he  accepts  them  at  once  as 
evidences  of  failure  and  decline. 

In  order  to  determine  the  significance  of 
deserted  farmhouses,  an  inquiry  has  been 
made  in  one  of  the  townships  in  a  so-called 
abandoned  farm  region.  Every  deserted  farm- 
house in  the  township  was  recorded.  Con- 
ditions there  are  as  bad  as  anywhere  in  that 
region ;  yet  by  count,  there  are  only  forty-five 
vacant  farmhouses  in  the  township,  the  area 
of  which  is  more  than  forty-five  square  miles. 
One  might  draw  the  conclusion  at  once  that 
there  are  forty-five  abandoned  farms  in  the  town- 
ship. It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  there  is 
a  single  really  abandoned  farm  in  this  area.  It 


Deserted  Fields  29 

true  that  there  are  many  fields  on  the  higher 
farms  that  are  not  used  except  for  hay  and 
pasture,  and  some  of  them  are  not  even  used 
for  these  purposes.  Practically  all  these  so- 
called  abandoned  farms  are  either  owned  or 
rented  by  near-by  farmers  and  have  really 
become  a  part  of  the  adjacent  farm.  The 
house  is  unoccupied  for  the  simple  reason  that 
the  farmer  needs  but  one  house.  A  few  vacant 
houses  have  been  deserted  by  families  who  have 
lost  their  homes  on  mortgage,  but  apparently 
not  primarily  from  fault  of  the  land.  Many 
others  have  been  sold  because  of  discontent  on 
the  part  of  the  owners,  who  wished  to  try  their 
fortunes  elsewhere.  In  some  cases  the  owner 
has  died  and  the  house  is  unoccupied  be- 
cause the  estate  has  not  yet  been  settled.  A 
few  more  are  vacant  because  tenants  cannot 
be  secured,  and  the  farm  is  rented  to  whom- 
ever is  willing  to  take  it  on  shares. 

Old  fields. 

Similar  remarks  may  be  made  with  respect 
to  many  of  the  apparently  abandoned  fields. 


30          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

Because  of  inability  to  secure  labor,  the  fence- 
rows  and  fences  are  often  not  as  clean  as  for- 
merly, and  the  roadsides  have  a  shabby  appear- 
ance. Fields  are  often  grown  to  weeds ;  yet 
these  fields  may  be  only  resting  until  the  owner 
finds  time  to  put  them  into  crop,  or  they  may 
be  used  for  light  pasture,  or  they  may  be  in 
the  process  of  returning  to  forest.  Of  course, 
they  are  relatively  ineffective  pieces  of  prop- 
erty, but  the  conclusion  must  not  be  reached, 
because  they  are  unkempt  and  not  in  use  at 
the  time,  that  they  are  abandoned  or  that  the 
owner  considers  that  he  is  obliged  to  desert 
them. 

The  significance  of  the  general  situation. 

It  is  unquestionably  true  that  there  is  lessen- 
ing utility  of  some  of  our  farming  lands.  In 
the  face  of  this  fact,  however,  three  other  facts 
stand  out  prominently:  (i)  Markets  are  as 
good  as  ever,  for  there  is  no  decline  in  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  people  (rather  there 
is  a  reverse  tendency);  (2)  the  land  is  still  pro- 
ductive, notwithstanding  a  popular  impression 


The  Early  Farming  31 

to  the  contrary;  (3)  good  farmers  are  better 
off  today  than  they  ever  were  before. 

We  have  heard  so  much  about  the  abandon- 
ment of  farms  that  we  are  likely  to  think  that 
it  measures  a  lessening  efficiency  of  agriculture. 
We  must  not  be  misled,  however,  by  surface 
indications.  We  are  now  in  the  midst  of  a 
process  of  the  survival  of  the  fit.  Two  oppo- 
site movements  are  very  apparent  in  the  agri- 
culture of  the  time :  certain  farmers  are  increas- 
ing in  prosperity,  and  certain  other  farmers 
are  decreasing  in  prosperity.  The  former  class 
is  gradually  occupying  the  land  and  extending 
its  power  and  influence. 

The  older  farming  was  practically  a  com- 
pletely self-regulating  business,  comprising  not 
only  the  raising  of  food  and  of  material  for 
clothing,  but  also  the  preparation  and  manu- 
facture of  these  products.  The  farmer  de- 
pended on  himself,  having  little  necessity  for 
neighbors  or  for  association  with  other  crafts. 
In  the  breaking  up  of  the  old  stratification 
under  the  development  of  manufacture  and 
transportation  and  the  consequent  recrystalliz- 


32          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

ing  of  society,  the  old  line  fence  still  remained; 
persons  clung  to  the  farm  as  if  it  were  a 
divinely  ordained  and  indivisible  unit. 

We  are  now  approaching  a  time  when  the 
traditional  boundaries  must  often  be  disre- 
garded. The  old  farms  are  largely  social  or 
traditional  rather  than  economic  units.  Because 
a  certain  eighty  acres  is  enclosed  with  one  kind 
of  fence  and  assessed  to  one  man  does  not  sig- 
nify that  it  has  the  proper  combination  of  con- 
ditions to  make  a  good  farm. 

We  must  consider  that  the  agriculture  of 
the  eastern  states  is  now  changing  rapidly.  It 
has  passed  through  several  epochs.  The  pos- 
sibilities of  agriculture  in  the  East  lie  largely 
in  a  new  adaptation  to  conditions,  and  in  its 
diversification.  This  diversification  is  already 
a  feature  of  the  East.  It  is  significant  to  note 
that  while  New  York,  for  example,  ranks 
fourth  in  value  of  farm  property,  it  ranks  as 
low  as  seventeenth  in  farm  acreage,  showing 
that  the  yield  per  acre  is  far  greater  than  in 
many  of  the  competing  states.  In  the  total 
value  of  farm  products,  New  York  is  exceeded 


. 

bv 


Position  of  New  York  33 


y  Iowa,  Illinois  and  Ohio.  In  the  value  of 
farm  crops,  in  1899,  it  held  fifth  place,  being 
exceeded  by  Illinois,  Iowa,  Texas  and  Ohio. 
Considered  with  reference  to  the  value  of  farm 
products  per  acre,  it  leads  the  states  in  this 
list,  the  figures  being  New  York,  $15.73  Per 
acre;  Ohio,  $13.36;  Illinois,  $12.48;  Texas, 
$12.25;  I°wa,  $12.22;  and  New  York  is 
exceeded  by  New  Jersey  and  most  of  the  New 
England  states.  Considering  the  fact  that 
New  York  state  is  one  of  the  largest  states 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  this  condition  also 
indicates  that  New  York  is  internally  less 
developed  than  some  of  its  competing  states. 
Illinois  ranks  first  in  value  of  farm  property 
and  first  in  available  farm  acreage;  Iowa  ranks 
second  in  the  value  of  farm  property  and  sec- 
ond in  available  acreage;  Ohio  ranks  third  in 
value  of  farm  property  and  third  in  available 
acreage;  New  York  ranks  fourth  in  value  of 
farm  property  and  seventeenth  in  available 
acreage.  The  above  statements  suggest  the 
reverse  of  decadence  in  eastern  agriculture,'* 
whatever  may  be  the  statistics  that  express 


34          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

changing  values  or  whatever  may  be  the  popu- 
lar fancy  to  the  contrary. 

A  further  evidence  of  the  great  diversifica- 
tion of  agricultural  enterprises  in  New  York, 
as  a  representative  of  eastern  conditions,  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  in  a  list  now  before 
me  of  twenty-two  leading  products  of  this 
latitude,  New  York  stands  first  in  the  pro- 
duction of  eleven  of  them,  whereas  no  other 
state  ranks  first  in  more  than  two  or  three  of 
them.  While  the  agriculture  of  the  state  in 
general  shows  a  decline  as  measured  by  the 
census  figures,  the  main  lines  of  special 
development  are  in  a  condition  of  increased 
vigor  and  effectiveness ;  and  this  remark  may 
be  extended  to  other  eastern  states.  The 
wonder  is  not  that  certain  lands  are  returning 
to  forest,  but  that,  in  all  this  shift  and  the 
rapid  development  of  the  West,  the  state 
has  been  able  to  hold  the  position  that  it  still 
occupies. 

This  rapidly  moving  readjustment  and  diver- 
sification will  produce  fundamental  changes  in 
the  mode  of  farming  and  in  the  economic, 


The  Problem  of  Each  Farm       35 

social  and  political  outlook  of  the  people.  In 
the  mode  of  farming,  it  will  force  new  busi- 
ness organization ;  and  when  new  acres  cannot 
be  had,  the  old  acres  will  be  doubled  by  using 
them  to  greater  depths.  In  very  many  ways, 
the  shift  is  now  demanding  a  new  kind  of 
study  of  agricultural  questions.  This  redi- 
rection of  agriculture  is  bound  to  come  in 
every  state ;  and  we  should  meet  it  hopefully. 
Nor  would  I  have  my  reader  feel  that  this 
readjustment  is  all  in  the  future.  It  is  pro- 
ceeding at  the  present  time,  and  with  greater 
momentum  and  effectiveness  than  many  of  us, 
I  suspect,  are  aware.  After  many  years  of 
touch  with  the  problem  and  with  the  men  who 
are  capable  of  judging  it,  I  am  impressed  that 
the  persons  who  are  most  alarmed  are  those 
confined  largely  to  offices  and  who  are  given 
to  the  study  of  statistics. 

The  situation  with  individual  farms. 

A  discussion  of  statistical  generalities  does 
not  exhibit  the  status  of  the  individual  farmer 
nor  give  us  specific  reasons  for  the  decline  of 


36          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

profitableness  in  farming.  Every  farm  is  a 
problem  by  itself  and  what  may  have  been  re- 
sponsible for  the  defeat  of  one  farmer  may  not 
have  been  the  cause  of  the  embarrassment  of 
his  neighbor.  Some  of  the  decline  no  doubt 
lies  directly  with  the  man,  quite  independently 
of  the  land:  it  is  psychological  and  perhaps 
even  hereditary,  and  in  its  community  aspects 
it  is  social;  but  these  phases  I  am  not  now 
prepared  to  discuss. 

The  larger  number  of  the  farms  of  appar- 
ently declining  efficiency  are  in  the  hill  regions. 
In  New  York,  many  of  them  are  on  soils  of 
the  volusia  series,  particularly  on  the  volusia 
silt  loam.  This  soil  is  of  low  humus  content, 
usually  with  a  high  and  compact  subsoil,  and 
limited  root  area.  Many  of  these  farms  are 
unsuccessful  in  part  because  of  their  climate. 
They  are  elevated.  It  is  often  impossible  to 
grow  with  profit  the  common  varieties  of  corn 
and  even  of  other  grain.  Sometimes  the  diffi- 
culty lies  in  their  remoteness  and  the  cost  of 
transportation,  together  with  the  poor  schools 
and  social  disadvantages  that  are  a  part  of 


Direct-Sales  Farming  37 

such  isolation.  Usually  these  hill  lands  are 
expensive  to  work,  and  they  do  not  lend 
themselves  well  to  open  tillage.  Very  fre- 
quently they  suffer  for  lack  of  under-drainage. 
If  the  elevation  is  too  high  to  grow  good 
wheat  it  may  also  be  too  high  for  good  clover, 
since  clover  is  usually  seeded  with  the  wheat. 

These  high  and  rough  lands  are  not  so  fre- 
quently plowed  as  lower  and  flat  lands  and, 
therefore,  they  are  not  cleaned,  do  not  receive 
the  benefit  of  rotation,  and  they  are  likely 
gradually  to  deteriorate  in  physical  condition. 

There  has  also  been  great  change  in  market 
demands.  Beef-raising  has  gone  out  of  the 
East.  It  was  a  simple  thing  to  grow  the  beef 
and  to  raise  the  milk  in  the  old  time,  but  it 
requires  skill  to  grow  and  market  a  modern 
steer  and  to  tend  a  modern  dairy  herd. 
With  relatively  few  cattle,  there  is  insufficient 
enrichment  of  land.  The  farmer  on  these 
hills  is  likely  to  practice  direct  sales;  that 
is,  he  sells  his  timothy  hay  and  other  prod- 
ucts direct,  removing  thereby  a  large  amount 
of  fertilizing  value  and  saving  nothing  of  the 


38          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

crop  except  the  roots  and  stubble  to  return 
to  the  land.  This  primitive  mode  of  gen- 
eral farming  allows  a  man  to  make  a  profit 
only  on  a  single  sale.  The  manufacturer  tries 
to  turn  his  property  over  more  than  once,  each 
time  expecting  to  realize  a  profit.  When  the 
farmer  is  able  to  market  his  forage  largely  in 
the  shape  of  animal  produce,  he  will  not  only 
save  fertility  but  should  make  a  profit  on  both 
the  crop  and  the  animal.  The  selling  of  baled 
hay  rather  than  pork  and  beef  and  milk  and 
eggs,  cannot  be  expected  to  yield  much  profit 
or  satisfaction  to  the  average  farmer  or  to 
keep  his  land  in  living  condition.  Taking  it 
by  and  large,  no  agriculture  is  successful  with- 
out an  animal  husbandry. 

The  popular  mind  pictures  these  so-called 
abandoned  lands  as  exhausted  in  their  plant- 
food,  but  this  is  probably  not  often  the  case. 
Very  many  of  them  are  potentially  as  produc- 
tive as  ever,  but  they  are  run  down;  yet  even 
at  their  best  they  might  not  be  able  to  satisfy 
a  man  who  lives  in  the  twentieth  century. 
Human  wants  have  increased.  What  would 


Not  Fitted  to  Environment         39 


have  made  a  good  and  comfortable  living  sev- 
enty-five or  one  hundred  years  ago,  would  not 
support  a  man  in  the  way  in  which  he  ought  to 
live  today,  nor  would  it  attract  his  boys  to 
remain  on  the  land. 

Lack  of  adaptation. 

All  these  and  other  causes  of  the  decline  of 
individual  farms  can  be  expressed  as  a  lack  of 
adaptation  to  the  natural  surrounding  condi- 
tions. Good  agriculture  is  the  perfect  adjust- 
ment of  the  methods  of  the  farmer  to  the 
particular  region  and  circumstances,  thus 
making  all  effort  count  and  eliminating  waste. 
This  is  why  some  of  the  European  farming 
is  so  much  better  than  our  own.  In  the  end, 
therefore,  good  farming  is  not  a  question 
of  West  or  East.  One  often  finds  excellent 
farming  in  what  are  generally  considered  to 
be  poor  agricultural  regions. 

It  is  a  biological  fact  that  animals  and 
plants  cannot  thrive  unless  they  are  well 
adapted  to  the  conditions  in  which  they  live ; 
and,  if  they  are  wholly  unadapted,  they  perish. 


40         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

Now,  farming  in  this  country  is  not  yet 
adapted  to  the  natural  conditions  of  soil  and 
climate  and  market  and  other  environmental 
factors.  In  fact,  we  really  do  not  yet  know 
what  the  soil  factors  are,  if,  indeed,  we  know 
to  any  degree  of  accuracy  what  any  local  fac- 
tors are.  If  some  of  our  eastern  farms  have 
changed  from  corn  and  wheat  to  hay,  and  if 
they  have  not  prospered  under  this  change, 
then  it  follows  that  they  have  not  yet  found 
their  proper  adaptation.  It  is  not  at  all  strange 
that  this  adaptation  is  lacking,  since  there  has 
been  no  means  of  putting  the  farmer  into 
touch  with  his  own  problem.  Not  one  of  the 
older  farmers  was  adapted  to  his  environment 
by  the  church  or  the  school  or  by  any  other 
educational  or  social  agency.  If  he  is  now 
adapted  to  the  conditions  in  which  he  lives,  it 
is  because  of  some  accident  of  heredity  or  cir- 
cumstance, or  because  of  his  native  wit.  We 
can  never  adapt  the  business  of  the  farm  to  its 
conditions  until  we  understand  thoroughly 
all  the  problems  involved,  and  there  has 
been  no  serious  effort  to  understand  these 


Competition  with  Adjacent  Regions  41 

particular   problems  until  within  very  recent 
time. 

Much  has  been  said  about  the  disadvantage 
of  the  eastern  farms  in  competing  with  the 
western  farms.  I  am  convinced  that  they  often 
suffer  quite  as  much  by  competing  with  each 
other  or  with  regions  close  at  hand.  In  a  thirty- 
mile  drive,  I  traveled  a  flat  country  where 
oats  were  a  good  crop  and  harvested  by  ma- 
chinery and  drawn  from  the  fields  in  high- 
piled  racks  ;  I  also  traversed  a  country  of  high 
and  steep  hills  in  which  oats  were  a  poor  crop 
and  not  harvested  by  machinery  and  were 
hauled  from  the  declivities  in  small  loads.  It 
was  evident  that  the  latter  region  could  not 
compete  in  the  raising  of  oats  with  the 
former,  although  they  were  less  than  twenty 
miles  apart.  The  one  region  seemed  to  be 
well  adapted  to  oats  and  the  other,  at  least  on 
the  hillsides,  was  not  a  profitable  oat  country. 
In  other  words,  the  farmers  on  the  hills  had 
not  adapted  their  farming  to  the  hills.  I  sus^ 
pect  that  a  bushel  of  oats  cost  them  at  least 
50  per  cent  more  than  it  cost  the  men  at  the 


42          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

other  end  of  the  county.  Yet,  I  think  that 
there  is  a  way  of  profitably  farming  such  hills : 
many  men  have  proved  it. 

Point  of  view  as  to  remedies. 

While  I  am  convinced  that  the  general  con- 
dition of  eastern  agriculture  is  prosperous  and 
hopeful,  we  all  know  that  there  are  very  great 
problems  and  that  some  regions  are  much 
more  disadvantaged  than  others.  If  we  are  to 
discuss  remedies  we  must  first  of  all  establish 
a  point  of  view. 

We  must  first  disabuse  our  minds  of  all 
prejudgments  and  consider  the  conditions  as 
they  actually  exist  and  in  their  relations  to  the 
general  progress  of  the  race.  Our  outlook 
must  be  forward  rather  than  backward.  We 
must  overcome  the  influences  of  many  phrases 
and  trite  statements  that  have  long  been  pub- 
lic property.  It  is  said  that  the  farms  are  the 
bulwark  of  the  nation.  Like  all  trite  sayings, 
this  is  both  true  and  false.  We  need  the  con- 
servative element  of  the  farm,  that  has  its  feet 
planted  directly  on  the  verities  of  the  earth. 


Large  Holdings  43 


But  we  must  remember  that  poor  lands  usu- 
ally raise  poor  people.  I  do  not  conceive  it  to 
be  necessary  that  all  the  lands  in  any  common- 
wealth should  support  farm  families  in  the 
sense  in  which  we  have  understood  it  in  the 
past.  It  is  much  better  for  the  commonwealth, 
both  from  the  economic  and  social  points  of 
view,  that  many  of  the  lands  should  be  de- 
voted to  forests  or  even  allowed  to  run  wild 
than  that  they  produce  people  that  are  only 
half  alive.  I  should  want  to  keep  the  conser- 
vatism of  the  agricultural  peoples,  but  I 
should  want  this  conservatism  to  be  construc- 
tive and  progressive. 

I  am  not  ready  to  admit  that  the  traditional 
"independent"  farm  family  on  80  or  100 
acres  is  always  necessarily  essential,  as  we 
have  been  taught,  to  the  maintenance  of  demo- 
cratic institutions  or  to  the  best  development 
of  agriculture.  The  size  of  holdings  and  the 
relation  of  the  family  to  the  land,  are  likely  to 
change  radically  in  many  regions,  and  we  must 
be  prepared  to  accept  the  fact.  The  Ameri- 
can has  a  traditional  fear  of  large  estates,  but 


44         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

such  estates  are  bound  to  come  in  some  of 
the  remoter  regions.  We  should  now  be  suffi- 
ciently established  in  democracy  to  have  for- 
gotten our  early  alarm  at  such  estates.  Very 
likely  we  shall  repeat  to  some  extent  the  expe- 
rience of  Germany  and  other  countries,  where 
leadership  of  large  agricultural  estates  has 
contributed  to  welfare. 

In  the  discussion  of  abandoned  farms,  I  fear 
that  we  have  been  misled  or  even  scared  by  a 
phrase.  We  have  accepted  the  term  "  aband- 
oned farms  "  as  itself  a  statement  of  fact  and 
have  seemed  to  reason  from  it  as  if  it  pre- 
sented a  single  condition  of  affairs.  Our  im- 
agination has  often  outrun  our  reason.  It  is 
not  so  much  a  question  of  abandonment  as 
of  shifting  occupancy  and  radically  changed 
conditions.  If  these  conditions  had  been  ex- 
pressed with  equal  emphasis  by  some  other 
phrase,  the  discussion  of  the  question  might 
have  taken  a  wholly  different  direction.  Sup- 
pose, for  example,  that  a  part  of  the  problem 
had  been  expressed  in  the  term  "  farms  be- 
coming forested:"  the  least  imaginative  of 


Not  an  Isolated  Question          45 

my  readers  will  at  once  see  that  a  wholly 
unlike  line  of  thought  might  have  evolved 
from  the  discussion  and  wholly  different  con- 
clusions might  have  been  reached.  There  is 
really  no  problem  of  abandoned  farms  as  such. 
The  so-called  abandonment  of  farms  does  not 
represent  one  condition  but  many  conditions ; 
not  one  series  of  facts  but  many  series  of 
facts ;  not  one  forthcoming  result  but  many 
results.  The  condition  of  agriculture,  even 
though  we  admit  it  to  be  bad  in  many  particu- 
lars, is  not  a  cause  for  alarm,  but  is  rather  a 
reason  for  new  and  careful  study.  Nor  does  this 
condition  affect  agriculture  alone;  it  is  rather 
a  problem  of  economic  evolution,  that  con- 
cerns the  organization  of  society,  and  consid- 
eration of  it  cannot  be  separated  from  the  dis- 
cussion of  general  welfare  questions  of  the  day. 
Mere  public  propaganda  cannot  solve  these 
questions  of  land  occupancy.  Associations 
and  conventions  cannot  solve  them.  Importa- 
tions of  labor  cannot  solve  them,  much  as  it 
may  help  the  individual  farmer  here  and  there. 
It  is  a  debatable  question  whether  we  should 


46         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

try  to  restock  many  of  the  present  farms 
merely  by  putting  a  foreign  family  on  them. 
Perhaps  the  very  reason  why  these  farms  are 
in  the  process  of  decline  is  that  they  are  neces- 
sarily ineffective  economic  units  and  are  not 
capable  of  being  directed  into  a  farm  manage- 
ment that  is  adaptable  to  present  conditions. 
Merely  to  put  families  back  on  many  of  these 
farms  would  be  to  continue  the  old  order; 
and  it  is  this  old  order  that  we  need  to  modify 
or  to  outgrow. 

Viewed  as  an  economic  question,  the  shifting 
of  farm  occupation  should  not  disturb  us 
more  than  other  shifting  of  population.  In 
the  present  day,  some  of  the  lands  that  are 
now  "  abandoned  "  would  not  have  been  set- 
tled. They  would  remain  in  timber ;  and  now, 
by  the  inexorable  power  of  economic  forces, 
they  are  returning  into  woodland.  Some  of 
these  farms  ought  to  be  abandoned  to  other 
uses.  It  is  a  misfortune  for  a  man  to  be 
obliged  to  inherit  one  of  them,  and  be  sen- 
tenced for  life  to  live  on  it.  He  would  much 
better  try  to  escape. 


Transition  Epochs  47 

fo  mere  treatment  of  symptoms  can  have 
much  permanent  effect  on  agricultural  condi- 
tions. Many  agricultural  localities  are  mak- 
ing great  effort  to  secure  summer  boarders. 
This  may  aid  a  certain  class  of  persons; 
but  as  the  summer  boarder  advances  into  the 
open  country,  agriculture  is  likely  to  recede. 
The  solution  of  the  problem  is  a  long-time 
process.  It  is  not  merely  adding  fertilizer, 
nor  killing  daisies  and  paint-brush ;  it  may  not 
be  even  a  question  of  making  the  farm  more 
productive.  The  little -farm -well -tilled  idea 
will  not  solve  the  problem.  It  must  be  a  pro- 
cess of  reorganization. 

Let  us  bear  in  mind  that  the  questions  of 
ineffective  farming  are  not  new.  Just  now  the 
emphasis  seems  to  be  placed  on  the  so-called 
abandonment  of  farms,  and  on  certain  kinds 
of  propaganda  that  promise  to  solve  these  dif- 
ficulties. We  have  passed  through  many  epochs 
or  eras  of  wide-spread  propaganda,  in  each  one 
of  which  some  one  factor  was  supposed  to 
afford  the  means  of  relieving  agricultural  dis- 
tress. I  remember  that  at  one  time  the  empha- 


48          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

sis  in  agricultural  discussion  was  placed  largely 
on  the  farm  mortgage,  but  we  have  learned 
that  a  mortgage  on  a  farm  is  not  inherently 
different  from  a  mortgage  on  any  other  prop- 
erty. I  recall  very  well  when  the  era  of  com- 
pounded fertilizers  was  at  its  height:  all  one 
had  to  do  was  to  have  the  soil  and  plant  an- 
alyzed to  determine  the  deficiencies,  and  then 
to  prepare  a  medicine  to  cure  the  disorder.  I 
remember  the  advent  of  farm  machinery,  which 
was  supposed  to  be  able  to  solve  the  farmer's 
difficulties.  I  saw  the  beginning  of  spraying 
for  insects  and  plant  diseases,  and  it  was  fig- 
ured up  for  us  what  losses  we  suffer  from  bugs 
that  prey  on  our  crops;  it  has  cost  us  more  to 
fight  bugs  than  to  fight  Indians,  counting  the 
value  of  crops  that  they  destroy;  spraying 
would  provide  a  remedy,  and  yet  bugs  are  still 
with  us.  At  one  time  the  emphasis  was  placed 
on  under-drainage,  and  we  need  a  recrudes- 
cence of  this  teaching.  In  parts  of  the  great 
West,  the  emphasis  is  naturally  placed  on  irri- 
gation. We  have  looked  to  the  rural  free  de- 
liveries of  mail  as  one  of  the  great  means  of 


Transition  Remedies 

alleviating  agricultural  isolation  and  failure. 
The  good-roads  people  have  been  sure  that 
the  lack  of  traversable  highways  is  the  cause 
of  the  so-called  agricultural  decline.  Lately, 
various  kinds  of  extension  work  have  been 
strongly  in  the  public  mind.  We  are  just  now 
in  the  era  of  soil  surveys  and  other  soil  studies. 
We  are  beginning  to  talk  in  a  new  way  about 
the  old  and  yet  unknown  subject  of  farm  man- 
agement. We  are  talking  freely  of  social  ques- 
tions, without  knowing  just  what  they  are. 

Every  one  of  these  epochs  has  placed  us  on 
a  higher  plane,  and  yet  we  have  never  heard 
more  about  agricultural  decline  than  within  the 
past  ten  and  twenty  years,  notwithstanding  that 
this  is  the  very  time  when  the  agricultural  col- 
leges and  experiment  stations  and  govern- 
mental departments  have  been  expanding 
knowledge  and  extending  their  influence.  The 
fact  is,  that  all  these  agencies  relieve  first  the 
good  farmers.  They  aid  those  who  reach  out 
for  new  knowledge  and  for  better  things.  The 
man  who  is  strongly  disadvantaged  by  natural 
location  or  other  circumstances,  is  the  last  to 


50         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

avail  himself  of  all  these  privileges.  We  have 
learned  that  it  is  not  sufficient  merely  to  start 
good  movements,  but  that  we  must  have  some 
active  means  of  reaching  the  last  man  on  the 
last  farm,  so  long  as  he  lives  there.  This  is  by 
no  means  a  missionary  work;  it  is  rather  a  duty 
that  the  state  owes  to  its  citizens,  to  provide 
those  persons  in  difficult  positions  with  the 
best  possible  means  of  making  their  property 
thoroughly  serviceable.  It  becomes  in  the  end, 
therefore,  a  personal  question  as  to  how  infor- 
mation and  education  can  be  taken  to  the  farms 
in  such  a  way  that  the  farming  shall  profitably 
adapt  itself  to  its  environments.  The  failure 
of  a  great  many  farmers  may  be  less  a  fault 
of  their  own  than  a  disadvantage  of  the  con- 
ditions in  which  they  find  themselves. 

It  is  fairly  incumbent  on  the  state  organiza- 
tion to  provide  effective  means  of  increasing 
the  satisfaction  and  profit  of  farming  in  the 
less-fortunate  areas  as  well  as  in  the  favorable 
ones,  both  as  an  agency  of  developing  citizen- 
ship and  as  a  means  of  increasing  the  wealth 
of  the  state.  The  state  cannot  delegate  this 


Establish  Orchards 

work,  nor  can  it  escape  the  responsibility  of 
it.  It  is  primarily  an  internal  question.  The 
questions  must  be  attacked  just  where  they 
exist,  and  with  the  sole  purpose  of  solving 
them  for  the  good  of  those  who  meet  them. 

The  outlook  for  the  hills  and  remote  lands. 

Wherever  farming  is  not  now  profitable,  a 
special  effort  should  be  made  to  readjust  the 
handling  of  the  lands  to  the  conditions  of 
climate,  soil  topography,  markets  and  the  like. 
Any  one  who  has  traveled  much  in  the  north- 
ern states  will  have  noticed  the  superior  quality 
of  the  tree  growth  and  the  grass  cover  in 
that  region.  Of  course,  the  unproductive 
areas,  whether  on  hills  or  plains,  present  very 
many  conditions  and  they  may  be  adaptable  to 
many  kinds  of  agriculture ;  but  in  the  particu- 
lar type  of  hill  land  and  remote  land  which  is 
now  most  in  the  public  mind,  I  look  ,for  the 
development  of  at  least  three  strong  forms  of 
farming : 

(i)   Fruit-growing    for  export.    We  have 

developed  great  skill  in  the  methods  of  car- 


52         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

ing  for  orchards  on  the  relatively  level  lands 
of  the  special  fruit  sections,  but  we  have 
given  very  little  attention  to  the  growing  of 
first  quality  apples  in  the  more  hilly  regions. 
In  such  regions  we  cannot  practice  the  type 
of  clean  tillage  that  we  advise  for  other 
lands.  Some  relatively  simple  and  inexpen- 
sive type  of  farm  management  must  be 
applied  to  them.  There  is  every  reason  to 
think  that  large  areas  in  the  East  that  are 
now  practically  unknown  to  fruit  may  grow 
a  grade  of  apples  that  will  be  in  great 
demand  in  the  foreign  trade.  The  state  can 
well  afford  to  undertake  some  large  demon- 
strations in  the  growing  of  such  orchards. 

(2)  A  revival  of  the  animal  industries  and 
the  extension  of  dairying.  With  the  con- 
tinued development  of  great  city  markets, 
the  dairy  industry  must  grow.  Many  of  the 
hill  and  outlying  lands  are  no  doubt  admir- 
ably adapted  to  pasturage  and  forage  crops 
for  cattle  and  sheep  and  swine ;  but  the  live- 
stock interest,  aside  from  dairying  and 
poultry-raising,  is  altogether  too  small  in 


theE 


Community  Forests  53 


the  East.  The  eastern  states  should  now  be 
making  inquiries  into  the  condition  of  the 
animal  husbandries  within  their  borders. 

(3)  The  growing  of  forests.  It  is  to  the 
forest  crop  that  vast  areas  of  the  roughest, 
highest  and  most  unproductive  lands  of  the 
East  are  best  adapted.  As  near  as  I  can 
determine  about  one -third  of  New  York, 
for  example,  is  in  woodland.  In  some  coun- 
ties, even  outside  the  Adirondack  reserva- 
tion, two-fifths  of  the  land  is  reported  to  be 
in  wood-lots.  This  is  a  greater  area  than  is 
devoted  to  any  other  crop,  and  it  probably 
yields  less  profit  per  acre ;  yet  in  the  census 
year  New  York  led  all  the  states  of  the 
union  in  the  value  of  farm-forest  products. 

As  a  people,  we  must  re-orient  ourselves 
to  the  subject  of  forests.  The  forest  is,  or 
ought  to  be,  considered  as  a  crop.  Natural 
forests  are  not  necessarily  the  best  forests, 
so  far  as  the  production  of  timber  is  con- 
cerned. Nearly  all  natural  forests  abound 
in  unproductive  areas,  and  in  trees  of  very 
slight  commercial  value,  which  are  as  much 


54          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

weeds  in  the  forest  as  Canada  thistles  are 
weeds  in  the  corn-field.  Man  can  produce 
a  better  commercial  forest  than  Nature  usu- 
ally does. 

These  forests  may  well  belong  to  the 
people.  Schools  and  towns  could  be  sup- 
ported by  the  proceeds  of  good  community 
forests,  at  the  same  time  that  water-supplies 
could  be  conserved,  wild  animals  protected, 
and  the  beauty  and  respectability  of  the 
country  enhanced.  When  this  time  begins  to 
come,  the  commonwealths  that  have  rough 
lands  may  consider  themselves  to  be  fortu- 
nate. The  town,  county  or  state  could  well 
afford  to  buy  some  of  these  lands  and 
devote  them  to  forests.  The  United  States 
government  is  well  begun  on  this  process, 
and  this  is  right;  but  it  is  also  necessary 
that  the  states  and  communities  themselves 
acquire  forests  in  order  to  maintain  their 
institutions  and  to  develop  local  enterprise, 
the  importance  of  which  I  shall  try  to 
develop  in  the  second  part  of  this  book. 


II 

Society  and  the  Farmer 

I  HAVE  now  tried  to  give  my  reader  a 
picture  of  some  of  the  conditions  con- 
fronting the  strictly  rural  society.  Even  this 
brief  sketch  is  sufficient,  I  think,  to  suggest 
that  the  problems  of  this  society  are  not  agri- 
cultural problems  alone,  nor  even  rural  prob- 
lems alone.  All  society  must  interest  itself  in 
them.  In  particular,  must  the  agents  of  society 
—the  various  organisms  or  departments  of 
states  and  communities — extend  their  con- 
structive work  directly  to  the  open  country, 
not  only  that  the  interests  of  the  open  country 
may  be  advanced  but  that  the  welfare  of  society 
itself  may  be  safeguarded. 

I  propose  now  to  bring  briefly  and  rapidly 
before  the  reader  a  few  of  the  ways  in 
which  society,  or  the  state,  may  exercise  it- 
self in  this  direction  to  advantage*  I  have 
in  mind  society  in  general,  —  that  is,  all  men 
(55) 


56         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

and  women  consciously  or  unconsciously  work- 
ing together  for  a  result,  —  and  not  alone 
the  mere  formal  organization  of  government. 
I  mean  to  express  some  of  the  mutual  obliga- 
tions of  the  state  and  the  farmer. 

THE    PROBLEM 

We  must  never  overlook  the  importance  of 
these  farm  producers  to  society,  nor  forget 
that  they  deserve  as  much  from  society  as  any 
other  persons.  These  persons  are  not  much  in 
evidence.  This  is  important:  they  are  not 
working  for  honor  or  acclaim.  They  are  re- 
mote. This  also  is  important:  they  are  near 
the  sources. 

Saving  our  resources. 

The  memorable  Conference  of  the  Gover- 
nors has  left  us  with  a  new  appreciation  of  the 
importance  of  our  natural  resources  and  the 
necessity  of  saving  them.  Much  was  said  about 
the  development  of  water-power,  the  prevent- 
ing of  land  erosion,  the  importance  of  gov- 
ernmental regulation  of  forests.  A  number  of 


Conservation  of  Resources          57 

e  governors  declared  that  they  would  ap- 
point forest  commissions  on  their  return:  this 
may  be  of  value,  but  it  is  not  likely  to 
accomplish  much,  as  commissions  go.  The 
man  who  stands  at  the  sources,  is  the  one  on 
whom  we  must  in  the  end  depend  for  the 
work  of  preservation.  The  instincts  of  the 
settled  farmer  are  all  for  preservation  and  bet- 
terment, not  for  exploitation  or  for  sales  of 
stocks:  he  is  the  natural  conservator  of  the 
native  resources  of  the  earth. 

There  are  many  persons  who  are  waiting  to 
know  what  forces  the  great  Conference  will  set 
in  motion  to  reach  and  quicken  the  man  at  the 
sources ;  that  is,  how  we  are  to  get  to  the  real 
bottom  of  the  question.  It  was  most  interest- 
ing to  follow  the  discussions  on  the  means  of 
developing  water-power:  the  Mississippi,  Ni- 
agara, and  other  great  streams  were  mentioned. 
This  development,  of  course,  is  necessary.  But 
rivers  are  not  born  as  rivers.  They  originate 
from  a  little  lake  in  the  mountains,  and  a  rill  in 
a  forest,  and  a  spring  in  the  pasture  lot.  To 
a  great  extent,  they  originate  or  are  supplied 


58         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

from  sources  on  some  man's  land.  This  man 
has  the  first  use  of  the  water.  Every  farm 
supplies  something  to  the  rivers.  Many  of 
them  supply  living  lakes  and  streams.  There 
are  more  than  five  millions  of  farms  in  the 
United  States.  Every  good  farm  will  in  time 
have  its  own  mechanical  power.  Much  of  it 
will  be  water-power.  When  the  farmer  devel- 
opes  his  water-power,  he  will  also  protect  his 
stream  or  spring.  It  is  more  important  that 
we  develop  small  power  on  a  million  farms 
than  that  we  organize  power  companies  or 
harness  Niagara. 

Our  natural  resources  are  of  three  kinds: 
Those  of  the  mining  order,  the  supply  of  which 
we  can  prolong  only  by  saving ;  those  growing 
directly  or  indirectly  out  of  the  earth  and  sea, 
as  all  forests  and  other  crops  and  all  animals, 
the  supply  of  which  may  not  only  be  conserved 
but  may  be  greatly  increased;  the  streams  and 
lakes,  the  control  of  which  depends  very 
directly  on  the  crop-cover  of  the  earth. 

In  the  last  analysis,  the  utilization  of  the 
powers  of  the  earth  depends  on  the  man  who 


The   Farmer's  Responsibility        59 

raises  the  crops,  whether  of  forests  or  cotton 
or  wheat.  The  solution  of  the  problem  is  to 
reach  this  man.  This  man  is  coming  to  a  new 
sense  of  his  responsibilities.  We  often  say  that 
the  farmer  feeds  all  the  people.  He  must  do 
more  than  this:  he  must  leave  his  part  of  the 
earth's  surface  in  more  productive  condition 
than  when  he  received  it.  This  he  will  accom- 
plish by  a  better  understanding  of  the  powers 
of  the  soil  and  the  means  of  conserving  them, 
for  every  well-managed  soil  should  grow  richer 
rather  than  poorer;  and,  speaking  broadly, 
the  farm  should  have  within  itself  the  power 
of  perpetuating  itself.  The  enrichment  of  land 
by  the  mere  purchase  of  mined  fertilizers — 
which  is  transportation,  or  the  exploitation  of 
one  place  for  the  benefit  of  another, — will  not 
accomplish  this.  Every  young  man  going  on 
the  old  farm  should  feel  that  he  has  practically 
a  new  farm  to  begin  on ;  and  every  good  farm 
should  pay  for  itself,  buildings  and  all,  in  every 
generation  of  men.  A  farm  youth,  as  well  as  any 
other  youth,  should  be  able  to  start  anew,  if  he 
wants  to,  even  though  he  does  not  go  west. 


60         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

It  is  not  only  important  to  farming,  but 
absolutely  essential  to  the  nation,  that  the 
man  at  the  sources  be  reached.  The  farther 
removed  the  man,  the  nearer  the  sources  he  is 
likely  to  be,  and  the  greater  may  be  the  neces- 
sity of  reaching  him.  We  have  made  only  the 
merest  beginning  toward  reaching  him.  We 
must  not  overlook  any  man. 

Government  can  go  into  farming, — that  is, 
into  forest-farming — on  its  own  account,  and 
this  it  must  do.  But  the  one  great  thing  that 
government  can  do  for  the  man  on  the  land, 
that  it  does  not  do  for  all  men,  is  to  increase 
his  sense  of  responsibility  to  the  land  and  to 
give  him  power  to  use  the  land.  This  is  educa- 
tion by  means  of  agriculture, — using  the  word 
agriculture  broadly  for  man's  occupational 
contact  with  the  surface  of  the  earth.  This  is 
the  real  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  saving 
and  increasing  of  our  natural  resources.  This 
lies  beyond  and  behind  all  commissions  and 
conventions.  Perhaps  the  commissions  and 
conventions  will  help  to  bring  this  about  more 
speedily. 


City  and  Country  Phases  61 

The  social  questions. 

Country  affairs  must  be  redirected.  The 
problem  is  chiefly  social.  Good  farmers  are 
making  the  farms  pay.  The  financial  part  of 
the  business  is  improving.  The  community 
feeling,  however,  seems  to  be  dormant,  if,  in 
fact,  not  actually  perishing  in  many  places. 

We  need  to  give  as  much  attention  to  the 
social  welfare  of  the  rural  country  as  to  simi- 
lar questions  of  urban  regions.  Our  studies 
of  social  questions  have  been  confined  very 
largely  to  congested  populations,  but  these 
questions  are  just  as  many  and  just  as  import- 
ant in  communities  of  scattered  homes  as  in 
cities  and  towns.  Even  the  question  of  con- 
gestion of  population  is  not  a  city  problem 
alone.  Part  of  the  city  population  comes  from 
the  country  and  this  movement  may  distress 
the  country  from  under- populating  it  at  the 
same  time  that  it  distresses  the  city  from  over- 
populating  it.  But  even  if  city  congestion 
were  to  come  wholly  from  the  city  itself,  it 
nevertheless  would  still  affect  the  country,  not 
only  because  some  of  the  surplus  might  find 


62          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

its  way  into  the  country,  but  because  all  popu- 
lations are  inter -relating  and  inter- acting. 
While  it  is  customary  to  divide  human  beings 
into  city  people  and  country  people,  all  great 
human  problems  are  fundamentally  the  same, 
differing  chiefly  in  their  phases  and  symptoms. 
There  is  a  city  phase  and  a  country  phase  of 
every  great  question.  The  city  phase  has  been 
studied  with  much  care,  and,  therefore,  we 
have  come  to  think  that  social  problems  are 
city  problems.  But  whatever  vitally  affects  the 
city  likewise  in  some  degree  affects  the  open 
country.  One  of  the  great  needs  of  the  time 
in  social  studies  is  that  we  discover  the  rural 
country. 

There  is  a  city  phase  or  application  and  a 
rural  application  to  all  questions  of  education, 
truancy,  public  health,  pauperism,  immigra- 
tion, charities,  corrections,  civic  relations, 
labor,  density  of  population,  moral  standards. 
We  have  made  the  serious  mistake  in  treating 
some  of  these  questions  as  separate  problems 
for  the  city  and  the  rural  districts,  largely, 
however,  by  disregarding  the  one.  We  are  at 


this 


Country  Must  Stand  for  Itself      63 


this  moment  making  the  mistake  of  con- 
sidering agricultural  education  as  a  thing 
apart,  whereas  it  is  only  a  phase  of  education 
in  general  and  cannot  be  isolated  without 
leading  us  into  error. 

If  these  statements  are  sound,  it  follows  that 
the  country  should  not  be  exploited  in  the 
interest  of  the  city.  The  country  must  be 
developed  for  itself  and  out  of  itself.  There 
must  be  a  country  social  order,  as  there  is  a 
city  social  order.  One  might  think,  from  many 
current  discussions,  that  the  country  exists  for 
the  convenience  and  benefit  of  the  city,  pro- 
viding occupation  for  those  who  have  failed  to 
attach  themselves  in  cities  and  an  asylum  for 
the  undesirables.  To  some  persons,  the  coun- 
try question  seems  to  be  only  a  congeries  of 
isolated  problems  of  needy  families  and  of 
vicious  communities ;  but  these  are  not  country 
questions  more  than  city  questions.  In  either 
case,  they  are  but  symptoms.  Want  must  be 
relieved  and  vice  must  be  controlled,  wherever 
they  are.  No  small  part  of  the  vice  of  the 
country  districts  is  that  which  is  forced  out 


64         The    State  and  the  Farmer 

from  the  cities.  The  open  country  has  prob- 
lems enough  of  its  own  without  being  obliged 
to  receive  the  over-plus  from  cities. 

What  I  have  in  mind  is  far  more  than  the 
mere  relief  of  symptoms  here  and  there.  I 
want  to  see  the  development  of  a  virile  and 
effective  rural  society ;  and  I  know  that  such  a 
society  can  come  only  as  the  result  of  forces 
arising  directly  out  of  the  country,  as  a  natural 
expression  of  the  country  itself,  not  as  a  reflec- 
tion or  transplanting  of  city  institutions.  The 
country  must  develop  its  own  ideals  and  self- 
respect.  My  city  friends,  for  example,  are 
proposing  ways  whereby  country  people  may 
have  entertainment,  but  they  make  the  funda- 
mental error  of  fashioning  their  schemes  on 
city  ways.  The  real  countryman  does  not 
think  of  theaters  and  recitals  and  receptions 
and  functions  in  the  way  that  the  city  man 
does,  and  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  that  he 
should.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  very  important 
that  he  should  not.  The  countryman  needs 
more  social  life;  but  his  entertainment  and 
contentment  must  come  largely  out  of  his 


What  the  Countryman  Is  65 

upation  and  his  contact  with  nature,  not 
from  mere  extraneous  attractions.  Herein  lies 
the  root  of  my  concern  in  nature-study  and 
nature-sympathy:  the  countryman  must  be 
able  to  interest  himself  spiritually  in  his  native 
environment  as  his  chief  resource  of  power  and 
happiness.  Many  a  country  family  rusts  and 
dies  for  want  of  a  local  stimulus. 

Holding  that  it  is  fundamentally  important 
to  preserve  and  encourage  originality  in  the 
open  agricultural  country  itself,  it  will  then  be 
necessary  to  stimulate  re-directive  movements 
to  prevent  the  country  from  tumbling  head- 
long into  the  small  city  or  town.  The  tendency 
of  farmers  to  move  into  town  is  to  be  depre- 
cated. It  is  not  necessary  to  pause  here  to 
combat  the  prevalent  but  superficial  notion 
that  farmers  would  better  live  in  hamlets  be- 
cause European  farmers  live  in  them,  but  only 
to  say  that  the  European  custom  is  the  result 
of  historical  and  social  conditions  that  do  not 
obtain  in  this  country,  and  to  consider  that 
Europe  itself  would  undoubtedly  be  better  off 
if  it  were  possible  for  a  different  condition  to 
E 


66         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

obtain.  We  have  no  peasantry  in  the  United 
States,  at  least  not  among  the  whites,  and 
farmers  are  moving  away  from  peasantry  rather 
than  towards  it.  The  great  social  movement  of 
the  world  is  away  from  peasanthood.  What  it 
may  be  necessary  to  do  to  arrest  the  drainage 
to  the  small  city,  we  shall  presently  consider. 

The  countryman. 

The  country  problems  must  be  approached 
sympathetically,  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
countryman.  The  countryman  is  to  live  in  the 
country,  and  to  make  it  or  mar  it.  Those  who 
approach  the  subject  with  the  idea  that  the 
countryman  is  unresponsive  or  incompetent, 
are  really  not  in  sight  of  the  problem  and 
would  better  let  it  alone.  One  who  judges 
country  life  by  city  standards, — as  many  city 
persons  do — would  also  better  let  the  problem 
alone.  Many  of  the  criticisms  of  the  personal 
appearance  and  habits  of  the  farmer  and  the 
pictures  of  supposed  unthrifty  farm  proper- 
ties, only  show  that  the  author  of  them  is  look- 
ing at  the  question  from  the  outside  and  at 


The  Countryman 

long  range.  It  is  quite  as  likely  that  it  is  the 
city  man  who  is  in  need  of  help.  It  is  the 
commonest  thing  for  the  onlooker  to  say  that 
farming  must  be  more  u  scientific."  Of  course 
this  is  true,  but  not  in  the  way  in  which  the 
onlooker  commonly  conceives  it.  It  is  the 
easiest  thing  to  make  the  most  stupid  failures 
by  merely  appropriating  the  scientific  facts  and 
discoveries  of  the  investigators ;  it  is  quite 
another  thing  to  work  these  facts  into  a  good 
system,  but  this  is  a  matter  of  slow  and  labori- 
ous growth. 

There  are  farmers  and  farmers.  They  are 
of  all  kinds  and  nationalities,  and  of  all  ranges 
of  competency;  but  the  good  farmer  is  one  of 
the  most  industrious,  capable  and  steadfast  of 
men,  and  he  is  likely  to  have  a  real  sympathetic 
relationship  to  nature  that  stands  him  in  good 
stead  at  all  times.  He  does  not  need  to  have 
help  or  charities  dispensed  to  him.  But  society 
needs  to  recognize  him,  and  it  is  high  time 
that  the  state  should  undertake  positive  con- 
structive efforts  that  will  allow  him  and  aid 
him  to  express  himself  to  the  full.  There  is 


68         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

enough  talent  and  ability  in  the  rural  country 
to  have  set  the  agricultural  status  far  ahead 
of  its  present  condition,  if  it  only  were  called 
out  and  allowed  to  express  itself.  It  lacks 
opportunity. 

The  best  public  opinion  grows  where  men 
are  most  independent,  where  they  are  least  tied 
commercially  and  personally  to  other  men, 
where  they  may  have  an  opinion  without  fear- 
ing to  jeopardize  their  trade  or  their  position. 
Commercial  men  and  salaried  men  are  tempted 
to  be  trimmers  and  compromisers.  The  method 
of  "practical  politics"  is  compromise.  This  in- 
dependence can  grow  much  better  on  land  that 
one  owns  than  in  rented  houses.  It  must  pro- 
ceed direct  from  cause  to  consequence,  as  a  field 
of  corn  grows  direct  from  seed  to  ear.  The  pro- 
cesses of  the  countryman  are  direct.  They  are 
not  over-organized.  There  is  fixity  and  direct- 
ness of  attention  in  the  country.  The  man  is 
not  diverted  by  a  thousand  things.  The  city 
boy  may  know  much  more  than  the  country 
boy,  but  a  good  deal  of  what  he  knows  may 
not  be  worth  knowing.  When  the  man  on  the 


The  Best  Public  Opinion          69 

land  is  well  educated  in  the  terms  of  his  envi- 
ronment, we  shall  have  the  kind  of  public 
opinion  that  stands.  The  roots  of  society  are 
away  back  in  the  soil. 

If  society  is  under  obligation  to  consider  the 
farmer,  it  is  equally  true  that  the  farmer  bears 
an  obligation  to  society.  This  the  farmer  is 
likely  not  to  recognize.  The  means  that  will 
bring  about  the  one,  however,  will  necessarily 
bring  about  the  other. 

Rural  needs. 

Before  we  can  intelligently  discuss  some  of 
the  remedies  for  the  social  ills  of  the  open 
country,  we  must  inventory  the  needs.  These 
needs  seem  to  fall  chiefly  into  five  great  groups, 
which  may  be  briefly  stated: 

(i)  The  need  of  greater  technical  knowledge 
of  agriculture.  This  knowledge  of  discovery 
and  teaching  is  being  rapidly  supplied  by  the 
experiment  stations  and  colleges  of  agriculture. 
The  knowledge  that  we  already  have  is  far  in 
advance  of  the  practice  of  it;  this  is  necessarily 
true  in  any  branch  of  human  activity,  but  this 


70         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

does  not  argue  against  the  necessity  of  still 
more  knowledge.  As  much  as  we  have  learned, 
all  the  great  fundamental  problems  of  rational 
agriculture,  are  yet  unsolved,  and  many  of  them 
are  not  even  explored.  Great  as  our  lack  is  in 
these  directions,  it  is  perhaps  even  greater  in 
the  social  and  cooperative  lines :  the  great 
country  problems  are  now  human  rather  than 
technically  agricultural. 

(2)  Need  of  governmental  protection,  where- 
by the  disabilities  that  are  not  a  part  of  his 
business  may  be  removed  from  the  farmer. 
Governmental  protection  and  control  are  least 
applicable  and  least  effective  in  the  farming 
country,  and  the  farmer  has  more  burdens  to 
carry  than  those  pertaining  to  the  rearing  of 
crops  and  animals  and  to  the  contest  with 
climate  and  weather:  some  of  these  handicaps 
will  be  removed  or  their  effects  minimized  in 
the  future  (page  81). 

Corollary  to  this  is  the  lack  of  any  kind  of 
organized  supervision  over  country  living.  For 
example,  there  is  no  continuing  oversight  of 
public  health  in  the  farming  country,  except  a 


Rural  Needs  71 

more  or  less  effective  effort  when  communi- 
cable diseases  break  out;  and  the  supervision 
even  then  is  usually  more  in  the  interest  of  the 
city  than  of  the  country.  We  are  much  in  need 
of  health  supervision  directly  from  the  country 
point  of  view.  The  lack  of  attention  to  health 
regulations  is  little  less  than  appalling  in  its 
consequences.  The  physicians  in  the  farming 
country  are  general  practitioners,  commonly 
out  of  close  touch  with  specialists  and  experts. 
It  is  pitiable  that  so  many  of  the  good  country 
population  are  lost  from  neglect,  and  anti- 
quated treatment  of  disease.  I  have  no  means 
of  knowing  whether  the  country  suffers  more 
than  the  city  in  this  particular  regard ;  but  well 
enforced  sanitary  regulations  are  powerful 
educators,  and  the  country  does  not  have  the 
benefit  of  them  to  the  same  extent  that  the 
city  has. 

(3)  Need  of  the  cooperative  spirit  in  business. 
The  development  of  our  rural  country  has  pro- 
ceeded mostly  on  the  basis  of  isolated  occu- 
pancy of  land,  with  the  strong  individualism 
that  goes  with  it.  Definite  cooperation  has  not 


72         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

been  necessary;  and  what  has  once  become  an 
established  order  soon  becomes  tradition. 

In  making  these  statements,  I  am  not  saying 
that  farmers  do  not  cooperate.  Great  numbers 
of  them  belong  to  organizations  and  societies 
of  one  kind  and  another,  and  the  number  is 
rapidly  increasing.  But  the  cooperation  is 
usually  not  as  complete  as  it  might  be,  and 
very  much  of  it  does  not  originate  from  the 
land.  Granting  everything  that  is  now  done, 
there  is  still  need  of  further  effort. 

(4)  There  is  need  of   centers  of  interest  in 
the  localities,  for  lack  of  such  interest  is  inten- 
sified by  the   rapid  growth  of  cities  and  the 
directing  of  attention  townward. 

(5)  Need  of  real  personal  starting-power  and 
enthusiasm;    of  gumption;  of  enterprise  that 
gets  things  done.    Lack  of    this    arises  from 
little  contact    with  fellows,  from  the  arrested 
development    due    to    marked    individualism, 
and  from  the  sterilization  of  rural  institutions 
consequent  on  the  removal  of  centers  of    in- 
terest to  the  towns.    In  the  last  analysis  it  is 
conditioned  on  the  low  earning-power  of  the 
average  farm ;  but  the  earning-power  is  in  the 


Remedies  73 

hands  of  the  farmer  himself  to  a  greater  extent 
than  are  the  social  needs. 

THE   NATURE  OF  THE   SOCIAL   REMEDIES 

As  to  remedies  for  the  social  shortcomings 
of  the  open  country,  only  the  most  general 
suggestions  can  be  given,  but  I  think  that  it 
is  fairly  possible  to  indicate  some  useful 
points  of  view.  Of  course,  the  fundamental 
corrective  of  it  all  is  education,  but  we  should 
indicate  what  the  nature  of  this  education 
ought  to  be.  We  much  need  to  know  how  to 
use  our  increasing  technical  knowledge,  and 
to  systematize  it  into  practical  ideals  of  per- 
sonal living. 

It  is  essential,  as  I  have  suggested,  that  we 
start  with  the  proposition  that  farming  people 
be  kept  on  the  farm.  The  centers  of  interest 
should  be  established  or  re-established  in  the 
open  country  itself,  not  further  concentrated 
in  the  town  or  city.  It  is  easy  to  see  how 
interest  converges  in  the  city  or  town  (page 
16).  Markets  are  there;  roads  lead  there; 
trolleys  and  telephones  lead  there;  the  best 


74          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

churches,  schools  and  entertainments  are  there. 
Farming  is  a  local  business :  it  rests  on  a  par- 
ticular piece  of  land;  if  the  farmer  is  to  be 
effective  he  must  be  content  in  his  locality. 
The  development  of  living  local  interest  is  the 
real  root  of  the  rural  social  question. 

The  importance  of  the  personal  and  local  initiative. 

Every  one  of  us,  I  am  sure,  feels  that  good 
institutions  will  not  save  us.  Society  can  be 
saved  and  advanced  only  by  increasing  the 
number  of  competent  persons  who  stand  on 
their  own  feet.  The  farmer  is  proverbially  the 
man  who  has  stood  on  his  own  feet.  Other 
persons  have  stood  on  other  men's  feet.  The 
purpose  of  every  good  country-life  institution 
is  to  develop  persons  who  are  able  to  walk 
alone.  We  must  be  careful  that  we  do  not 
develop  a  man  who  will  go  about  his  farming 
leaning  with  one  arm  on  the  government  and 
with  the  other  on  the  college  or  experiment 
station,  and  at  every  turn  asking  for  recipes 
in  franked  packages.  It  is  not  the  business  of 
government  to  test  every  farmer's  seeds,  but 


Local  Incentive  75 

to   teach  every   farmer  how  to   test   his  own 
seeds. 

I  think,  therefore,  that  no  agricultural  work 
public  or  private,  no  institution  state  or 
national,  no  movement  educational  or  philan- 
thropic, has  adequate  justification  unless  its 
one  purpose  or  effect  is  to  allow  native  indi- 
vidual responsibility  and  initiative  to  develop 
in  the  man  who  stands  directly  on  the  land; 
and,  if  it  is  necessary  to  stimulate  enterprise,  the 
effort  should  lie  preferably  with  the  institu- 
tion or  agency  that  is  nearest  to  the  man  and 
his  problem. 

Agencies  of  local  communication. 

The  city  has  developed  great  effectiveness 
through  its  means  of  communication.  The 
open  country  is  just  beginning  to  consider  a 
similar  phase  of  development.  Undoubtedly, 
the  engineer  is  to  have  a  marked  influence  on 
the  institutions  of  country  life.  Comfortable 
highways  and  electric  lines  are  to  open  up  the 
country.  They  will  thread  it  with  a  network 
of  avenues.  Of  themselves,  these  avenues  will 


76         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

be  concentrative  or  centripetal  agencies,  for 
the  most  part,  piling  up  wealth  in  small  cities 
and  towns,  as  1  have  already  indicated  ;  we  need 
to  be  thoughtful  to  develop  at  the  same  time 
the  distributive  or  centrifugal  agencies  to 
counteract  this  tendency. 

It  is  important  that  the  lay  of  these  avenues 
be  such  as  to  develop  the  country  as  well  as 
the  town.  Good  roads  are  a  means  of  doing 
business  expeditiously  and  economically ;  they 
are  also  a  means  of  overcoming  isolation,  and 
they  will  have  a  great  influence  in  organizing 
social  movements  in  the  open  country.  As  all 
other  avenues  of  commerce  have  been  pri- 
marily city-feeders,  it  is  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance that  country  highways  serve  country 
necessities. 

The  distributive  agencies  will  be  largely 
social.  The  development  of  a  country  mail 
service  is  the  beginning  of  an  effective  dispers- 
ive or  disseminating  institution.  We  must 
have  a  parcels  post, — an  institution  that  is 
opposed  on  the  one  side  by  express  companies 
and  often  on  the  other  by  merchants  in  the 


Roads  and  Posts  77 

smaller  centers,  who  are  afraid  that  persons 
will  buy  goods  through  the  mails.  It  is  humil- 
iating that  great  public  service  should  be 
obliged  to  wait  on  such  opposition  as  this. 

As  nearly  as  I  can  estimate  from  such  data 
as  I  have  been  able  to  collect,  not  one  farmer 
in  three  reads  an  agricultural  book,  an  agricul- 
tural bulletin,  or  an  agricultural  newspaper.  It 
is  all  well  enough  that  the  farmer  thinks  in 
terms  of  experience  rather  than  in  terms  of 
books;  but  a  sound  reading-habit  is  essential 
to  his  progress  and  his  success.  Reading-clubs, 
of  one  kind  or  another,  are  likely  to  become  a 
strong  force.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the 
agricultural  press  will  find  itself  exercising  a 
new  cooperative  relation  with  the  reader.  I 
look  on  the  reading-center  as  one  of  the  dis- 
tributive agencies. 

We  should  not  forget  that  distributive  agen- 
cies should  be  developed  coordinately  with 
the  centralizing  agencies,  otherwise  we  make 
no  permanent  progress.  It  is  not  by  any  means 
sufficient  that  we  have  merely  good  roads  and 
autocar  routes  and  many  trolley  lines  and  a 


78         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

web  of  telephone  communication.  All  develop- 
ments depend  for  their  final  success  on  com- 
plementary movements. 

^Reconstructive  movements. 

Reconstructive  agencies  are  already  well 
under  way.  All  the  shift  of  which  I  have 
spoken  is  not  without  its  decided  reaction. 
The  change  of  center  has  called  for  new  kinds 
of  institutions  to  stand  for  the  country-life 
interests.  These  institutions  are  largely  gov- 
ernmental. They  reflect  the  rapidly  growing 
tendency  toward  state  or  federal  solidarity, 
and  the  delegation  of  power  from  the  locality 
to  the  capitol.  The  rural  population  is  now  in 
danger  of  looking  beyond  its  own  institutions 
to  government. 

The  greatest  of  all  these  new  agricultural 
institutions  in  this  country  is  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture,  working  from 
the  center  outward,  and  gradually  touching 
almost  every  isolated  phase  of  country  life. 
The  growth  of  this  great  institution  should 
be  a  source  of  pride  to  every  American. 


National  Department  of  Agriculture  79 

It  now  has  the  disbursement  of  some  $10,- 
000,000;  and  every  patriot,  I  hope,  wants 
to  see  this  sum  greatly  increased.  Persons 
frequently  remind  us  that  this  is  a  vast  sum, 
forgetful  or  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  it 
represents  vast  and  fundamental  interests.  I 
prefer,  rather,  to  think  of  it  as  a  wholly  inade- 
quate sum,  when  I  compare  it  with  the  $72,000,- 
ooo  spent  for  the  support  of  the  army  and  the 
$102,000,000  expended  by  the  naval  service; 
for  we  must  look  for  a  time  when  departments 
that  stand  for  peace  by  means  of  preparation 
for  war  will  cease  to  exist,  and  when  their 
regulatory  and  statecraft  work  will  be  dis- 
tributed in  those  departments  that  rest  on 
economic  and  social  development. 

The  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment 
stations  present  a  decided  recrystallization  of 
agricultural  ideals,  constituting  centers  of  influ- 
ence more  or  less  remote  from  localities,  and 
representing  a  distinct  centralization  of  power 
and  of  leadership  within  the  states.  They  are 
rapidly  becoming  the  centers  of  a  new  agricul- 
tural system. 


8o         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

The  now  common  phrase  "  back  to  the 
country,"  has  a  deeper  significance  than  most 
of  us,  I  fancy,  have  caught.  It  means  not  only 
that  certain  persons  are  going,  or  talking 
about  going,  from  the  city  to  the  country,  but 
that  initiative  is  being  reflected  from  centers 
— largely  governmental  centers — back  into  the 
country.  There  is  developing  a  ganglionic  in- 
tellectual organization,  as  in  years  past  there 
has  developed  a  similar  economic  organization. 

It  is  easy  to  trace  the  over-influence  of  the 
city  in  country  affairs.  The  cities,  for  example, 
because  they  provide  the  market,  are  begin- 
ning to  dictate  the  mode  of  producing  milk, 
sometimes  with  too  little  consideration  for  the 
farming  conditions.  This  work  is  properly  a 
state  function  rather  than  a  city  function.  The 
present  agitation  on  bovine  tuberculosis 
exhibits  a  similar  influence. 

The  kinds  of  help. 

I  think  that  I  see  at  least  six  classes  of  help- 
ful activities  for  the  betterment  of  rural  con- 
ditions:  (i)  The  discovery  of  local  fact;  (2) 


thet 


Special  Kinds  of  Help  81 


e  training  of  particular  persons  for  special 
kinds  of  community  work;  (3)  the  organiz- 
ing of  the  governmental  function  in  agricul- 
ture; (4)  the  redirecting  of  rural  institutions; 

(5)  the   developing  of  applicable   education; 

(6)  the   appeal  to   personal  leadership.    We 
may  now  consider  these  classes  sufficiently  to 
enable  us  to  catch  their  significance. 

Aside  from  these  efforts,  we  must  remove 
all  handicaps  and  disabilities  that  are  not  a 
natural  part  of  the  business,  as  the  inequalities 
of  transportation  facilities,  the  effect  of  com- 
binations in  the  interest  of  the  few,  discrimi- 
nations in  tariff  and  other  legislation,  the  op- 
pression of  systems  of  marketing,  the  injustices 
of  modes  of  taxation  (p.  70).  These  and  their 
kind  constitute  a  very  large  subject,  on  the  dis- 
cussion of  which  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  enter. 

I.     THE     DISCOVERY     AND    COLLATING    OF 
LOCAL    FACT 

A  thorough-going  study  of  the  exact  agri- 
cultural status  of  every  state  should  now  be 
made,  and    it    should    be  made   by  the  state 
F 


82          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

itself,  working  through  an  agricultural  college. 
Such  an  inquiry  made  carefully  and  without 
haste  by  men  who  are  thoroughly  well  pre- 
pared, and  continuing  over  a  series  of  years, 
would  give  us  the  data  for  all  future  work  with 
local  problems.  We  must  have  the  geograph- 
ical facts.  We  are  now  lacking  them.  We  talk 
largely  at  random.  We  must  discover  the  fac- 
tors that  determine  the  production  of  crops 
and  animals  in  the  localities,  and  the  conditions 
that  underlie  and  control  the  farm  life.  Consid- 
eration of  these  conditions  involves  study  of 
local  climate ;  knowledge  of  the  kinds,  classifica- 
tion and  distribution  of  the  soils  and  the  rela- 
tion of  place  and  altitude  to  production  of 
crops  and  live-stock ;  determination  of  the  best 
drainage  practices  on  various  soil  types ;  con- 
sideration of  the  cultural  experience  and  ma- 
nurial  needs  as  adapted  to  the  types;  inquiry 
into  the  practice  with  all  leading  crops  and 
products  of  the  localities ;  study  of  the  possi- 
bilities for  farm  water-power ;  collation  of  com- 
munity experience.  Such  a  study  of  a  state 
should  be  broad  and  general  enough  to  con- 


Local  Fact  83 

sider  the  status  of  all  the  agricultural  indus- 
tries in  the  state,  and  it  should  also  take  full 
cognizance  of  educational  and  social  conditions. 
This  constitutes  the  greatest  need  of  prac- 
tical farming  at  the  present  day.  The  agricul- 
tural institutions  are  working  out  the  princi- 
ples, but  they  may  not  be  able  to  apply  these 
principles  to  individual  farms  because  they  do 
not  know  the  exact  local  conditions.  The 
farmer  himself  may  not  know  the  principles, 
nor  even  the  local  facts.  The  result  is  a  lack 
of  articulation  between  the  teaching  and  the 
practice.  Farming  is  founded  on  the  facts  of 
the  locality:  no  business  can  hope  for  the  best 
success  until  it  has  exact  knowledge  of  its 
underlying  conditions. 

Agricultural  surveys. 

These  kinds  of  inquiries  are  now  well  under 
way  in  the  form  of  "  surveys  "  of  many  kinds, 
proceeding  from  the  colleges  of  agriculture  and 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 
The  studies  of  larger  range,  that  purpose 
to  compare  general  agricultural  conditions  in 


84          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

the  whole  national  domain  and  to  standardize 
our  knowledge  of  them,  may  well  be  under- 
taken directly  by  the  national  government; 
but  the  commonwealth  itself  should  give 
itself  the  advantage  of  making  inquiries  into 
its  own  agricultural  conditions.  The  survey 
work  of  the  institutions  will  be  greatly  per- 
fected in  the  next  few  years,  and  we  may  ex- 
pect to  see  great  public  funds  devoted  to  it. 
The  survey  parties  will  comprise  strong,  all- 
round  men.  No  small  part  of  the  value  of 
such  surveys  will  be  the  discovery  of  great 
numbers  of  earnest,  competent  men  and  women 
on  the  farms  who  may  be  made  local  leaders, 
and  the  recognition  that  it  will  give  to  good 
agricultural  practice  everywhere.  Every  thor- 
ough survey  should  be  the  forerunner  of  new 
ideals  for  the  communities,  and  of  new  points 
of  crystallization  of  local  effort.  It  should 
make  new  paths. 

The  model  farm  idea. 

Many  plans  have  been  devised  to  develop 
this  practical  local  experience.    A  notable  sug- 


Model  Farms  85 

gestion  has  recently  been  made  by  high  author- 
ity, advising  the  establishing  of  one  model 
farm  in  every  agricultural  county,  to  be  pref- 
erably under  federal  control.  Passing  the 
assumption  that  a  3<>acre  or  4Oacre  farm  is 
the  most  desirable  unit,  and  also  the  specific 
plan  of  rotations  and  style  of  farming,  sev- 
eral underlying  doubts  may  be  expressed  on 
the  project:  (i)  Such  farms  would  only  indi- 
rectly utilize  the  natural  and  normal  experience 
of  the  community :  they  would  be  essentially 
exotic  or  would  at  least  be  more  or  less  arbi- 
trary and  imposed;  (2)  a  "model"  farm 
usually  has  little  influence,  since  it  is  main- 
tained under  conditions  that  farmers  cannot 
hope  to  secure;  (3)  the  object-lesson  method 
of  teaching  is  not  the  most  fruitful;  it  is  not 
dynamic;  it  is  proverbial  that  persons  living 
near  the  very  best  farms,  or  about  experiment 
station  or  college  farms,  may  profit  very  little  by 
them;  (4)  one  farm  in  a  county  is  by  no  means 
sufficient  either  to  represent  the  dominating 
agricultural  conditions  of  the  county  or  to 
interest  all  the  people  in  the  county;  (5)  the 


86         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

farther  removed  the  control  of  such  a  farm, 
the  less  can  it  hope  to  develop  local  experi- 
ence wherewith  to  appeal  to  the  people.  The 
best  model  farms  are  actual  farmers'  farms. 
The  experience  on  real  farms,  whether  good 
or  indifferent,  should  be  assembled;  this  is  a 
kind  of  advisory  supervision  that  the  state 
may  very  well  undertake,  working  with  the 
units  and  the  conditions  that  are  already  in 
existence. 

The  model  farm  idea  was  dominant  in  the 
early  days  of  the  colleges  of  agriculture,  but  it 
has  been  found  to  be  impracticable  and  one 
now  seldom  hears  it  mentioned. 

2.    DEVELOPING  PARTICULAR   PERSONS   FOR 
COMMUNITY   WORK 

The  failure  of  our  fairest  and  most  perfect 
plans  traces  itself  to  lack  of  good  local  leaders. 
In  small  towns  and  the  open  country  there  are 
club-houses  vacant  or  of  no  account  because 
there  is  no  one  person  to  organize  and 
energize. 

In  cities,  great  things  are  accomplished  by 


Community  Workers  87 


settlements  of  one  kind  and  another.  Some- 
thing of  the  kind  can  be  done  in  the  country, 
but  it  will  need  to  be  in  the  nature  of  better 
examples  of  actual  farming  as  a  base,  with  the 
farmer  taking  a  new  kind  of  enthusiastic  inter- 
est in  all  the  public  and  organized  affairs  of 
his  community.  The  greatest  aid  will  probably 
come  by  means  of  individual  effort  rather  than 
by  large  settlement  organization.  The  farming 
people  must  be  reached  through  individualism 
rather  than  through  institutionalism.  Men  and 
women  may  establish  themselves  as  actual 
farmers,  and  while  making  a  living  from  the 
land  conduct  a  kind  of  social  effort  that  is 
quite  unknown  in  this  country  today.  There  is 
great  opportunity  for  young  persons  to  fit 
themselves  for  this  kind  of  work,  developing 
leadership  and  serving  their  fellows  without 
the  handicap  of  over-organization,  which  is 
likely  to  be  a  serious  drawback  in  the  highly 
specialized  work  of  the  cities.  Nowhere  will 
the  individuality  of  personal  leadership  count 
for  more  than  in  the  country. 

It  is  important    that    the  country  work   be 


88          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

founded  on  occupation  (that  is, 'on  agricul- 
ture), since  all  country  interests  rest  on  occu- 
pation. That  is  to  say,  the  good  social  worker 
should  be  a  farmer,  rather  than  a  missionary, 
charity  organizer,  officer  of  correction,  or  phil- 
anthropist. It  is  not  a  question  of  slumming. 
The  rural  people  are  not  lost:  they  need 
opportunity  and  leadership.  So  far  as  pos- 
sible, the  work  should  be  established  in  real 
rural  regions,  outside  the  towns.  The  worker 
should  be  resident  the  year  round,  not  migra- 
tory; and  above  all  he  should  not  be  of  the 
summer  boarder  class.  Inasmuch  as  personal 
leadership  in  country  work  must  rest  on  a 
good  foundation  of  agricultural  knowledge,  it 
follows  that  the  best  training  place  for  this 
class  of  men  is  the  agricultural  school  or  col- 
lege. Heretofore,  these  institutions  have  de- 
voted their  attention  chiefly  to  technical  agri- 
cultural instruction,  but  they  are  now  rapidly 
taking  up  the  social  and  the  larger  economic 
phases  of  country  life.  From  some  of  the  col- 
leges, the  young  men  and  women  go  back  to 
the  country  thoroughly  alive  to  the  necessity 


Social  Workers  89 

of  organizing  the  social  forces  there.  The 
time  cannot  be  far  distant  when  there  will  be 
some  kind  of  a  voluntary  association  between 
the  students  of  all  agricultural  colleges,  look- 
ing to  the  elevation  of  agricultural  communi- 
ties as  well  as  to  their  own  progress  as  farm- 
ers. Something  like  the  student  volunteer 
movement  will  eventually  come  out  of  this 
rising  sentiment. 

All  public  welfare  societies  should  endeavor 
to  interest  good  countrymen  in  the  work  that 
they  are  doing,  bringing  the  countrymen  into 
the  organization,  making  them  in  effect  local 
agents  and  representatives :  this  is  very  much 
better  than  to  attempt  to  reach  the  problem 
by  merely  sending  persons  into  the  country. 

3.     THE     GOVERNMENTAL     FUNCTION    IN 
AGRICULTURE 

One  by  one  the  dominant  affairs  of  the  peo- 
ple are  expressing  themselves  in  administra- 
tional  departments  of  government.  Insurance, 
supervision  of  buildings,  management  of  chari- 
ties and  corrections,  engineering  improvements, 


90          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

banking,  railroads,  and  others,  are  represented 
by  departments  or  bureaus  having  executive 
authority. 

State  departments  of  agriculture. 

Every  state  in  the  Union,  as  well  as  the 
provinces  of  Canada,  has  some  kind  of  a  state- 
recognized  organization,  voluntary  or  other- 
wise, devoted  to  agriculture.  Some  of  these 
organizations  are  societies  ;  others  are  boards  ; 
apparently  less  than  half  of  the  organizations 
are  really  a  department  of  the  state  govern- 
ment, and  with  perhaps  a  half  dozen  excep- 
tions, these  departments  do  not  exercise 
extended  governmental  functions.  For  the 
most  part,  these  state  organizations  are  con- 
cerned chiefly  with  the  exploitation  of  the 
agricultural  resources  of  the  commonwealth 
or  with  the  holding  of  conventions  and  con- 
ducting of  fairs.  Sometimes,  as  in  Michigan, 
Maryland  and  Colorado,  the  board  of  agricul- 
ture acts  as  a  board  of  trustees  for  the  agri- 
cultural college.  In  a  number  of  the  states, 
the  composition  of  these  boards  is  founded 


Governmental  Function  91 

on  representation  by  agricultural  societies.  In 
many  of  them,  the  executive  officer  is  ap- 
pointed by  the  governor.  In  a  few  cases,  he 
is  elected  at  the  polls.  These  various  modes 
and  functions  indicate  that  there  is  yet  very 
little  clear  conception  in  this  country  of  the 
governmental  function  of  agriculture,  as  a 
definite  part  of  a  state  cabinet ;  but  this  will 
come  in  time,  as  clearly  as  it  has  come  in  the 
administration  of  education,  departments  of 
health,  and  the  like.  Such  departments  will  be 
frankly  maintained  by  as  large  and  free  appro- 
priations as  those  devoted  to  other  parts  of 
the  state  government,  and  the  executive  officer 
will  be  counted  worthy  as  much  salary  as  state 
architects,  engineers  and  attorneys  general. 
Such  departments  might  have  immense  influ- 
ence in  dignifying  country  life  affairs,  in  safe- 
guarding them,  and  in  stimulating  the  local 
initiative  of  which  we  have  been  speaking. 

This  means,  of  course,  the  new  kind  of  public 
or  governmental  organization,  one  not  con- 
ceived along  political  patronage  lines.  Govern- 
ment by  influence  must  go,  and  government  by 


92         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

merit  must  come.  The  conducting  of  such 
work  must  lie  with  men  of  ideals.  It  is  time 
that  specially  trained  men  from  the  colleges  of 
agriculture  be  put  in  charge  of  work  in  these 
state  departments.  If  the  agricultural  college 
and  experiment  station  idea  is  worth  anything, 
it  is  high  time  that  it  be  worked  directly  into 
state  government. 

The  governmental  function  in  agriculture  is 
very  much  more  than  the  making  and  execut- 
ing of  laws.  The  demand  for  fiats  to  extermi- 
nate bovine  tuberculosis  is  a  case  in  point. 
The  real  solution  of  this  question  is  by  means 
of  popular  education,  conducted  through  col- 
leges, schools,  institutes  and  otherwise,  com- 
bined with  wise  statutory  regulation.  In  five 
years  or  less,  any  state  could  create  public 
sentiment  that  would  control  the  situation. 

A  new  statesmanship. 

Some  of  the  largest  questions  now  before 
the  people  are  really  rural  questions ;  but 
many  of  the  great  rural  questions — particularly 
those  of  a  social  kind — have  not  yet  been  rec- 


A  New  Leadership  93 

ognized  by  public  men.  The  solution  of  these 
questions  will  demand  statesmanship  of  the 
very  highest  order.  Statesmanship  has  been 
confined  too  much  to  so-called  political  ques- 
tions. Many  persons  of  first-class  powers  and 
thoroughly  familiar  with  rural  questions  have 
had  no  opportunity  to  express  themselves.  I 
am  convinced  that  the  greatest  present  need  in 
constructive  statesmanship  lies  in  the  direction 
of  agricultural  affairs. 

Attitude  of  state  governments. 

The  lack  of  understanding  of  the  relation  of 
agricultural  affairs  to  state  government  is  well 
illustrated  by  the  current  attitude  of  such  gov- 
ernments towards  certain  appropriations.  Arti- 
cles recently  appearing  in  the  press  charge 
that  directors  of  agricultural  colleges  and  ex- 
periment stations  are  becoming  politicians.  If 
this  charge  is  true  it  may  be  the  direct  result 
of  methods  of  conducting  state  affairs.  A  state 
government  is  largely  a  business  organization. 
It  comprises  departments  that  operate  for  the 
good  of  the  whole.  If  a  business  man  wishes 


94         The  State  and  the  Farmer 

to  make  his  business  thrive,  he  endeavors  to 
determine  what  each  department  needs  and 
appropriates  to  it  all  that  he  can  spare  and  in 
proportion  to  its  efficiency;  and  if  any  depart- 
ment is  unable  to  do  good  work  because  of 
lack  of  facilities,  he  considers  it  good  business 
policy  to  put  that  department  in  the  way  of 
accomplishing  its  best  results.  Now,  the  state 
often  puts  itself  on  the  defensive  against  itself, 
as  if  under  the  necessity  to  repress  its  own  de- 
partments. The  result  is  that  the  director  of 
an  agricultural  institution  may  feel  obliged  to 
organize  his  friends  and  become  what  is  inap- 
propriately called  a  "politician"  in  order  that 
he  may  secure  facilities  to  serve  the  state.  It 
has  been  necessary  for  persons  who  have  seen 
the  need  in  advance,  to  do  just  this  kind  of 
pioneer  work,  but  it  would  be  unfortunate  to 
oblige  them  to  continue  it.  It  would  seem  to  be 
not  beyond  reason  for  the  state  to  have  an 
officer,  commission  or  board, — as,  in  fact,  some 
states  have, — to  make  a  yearly  study  of  all  state 
institutions  thoroughly  and  to  make  recom- 
mendations as  to  comparative  necessities,  allow- 


State  on  the  Defensive  95 

ing  the  officers  of  such  institutions  to  remain 
at  home  and  develop  their  special  work. 

A  state  college  or  school  of  agriculture  or 
experiment  station  is  set  by  the  state  to  ac- 
complish certain  work  for  the  people;  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  persons  in  charge  of  such  institu- 
tion to  acquaint  the  state  government  with  the 
needs  of  the  institution  for  the  accomplishing 
of  those  ends;  if  it  is  not  possible  or  expedient 
to  supply  such  needs,  the  responsibility  natur- 
ally lies  with  the  government. 

The  state  government  part  and  the  federal  part. 

I  have  said  (page  75)  that  every  governmental 
department  or  bureau  devoted  to  agriculture 
should  make  its  one  purpose  the  developing  of 
the  personal  initiative  and  the  community  feel- 
ing of  the  persons  in  the  country;  and  that  other 
things  being  the  same,  the  department  or  group 
nearest  home  should  have  the  greatest  useful- 
ness in  this  direction.  As  a  concrete  illustration 
of  what  I  mean,  I  will  cite  certain  types  of  work 
at  present  lying  between  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  and  the  states. 


96          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

Congress  established  a  system  of  agricul- 
tural colleges  in  1862.  It  established  a  system  of 
experiment  stations  in  1887.  It  elevated  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  into  an  executive 
department  of  government  in  1889.  The  col- 
leges and  experiment  stations  are  state  institu- 
tions, since  the  federal  funds  are  given  to  the 
states.  They  constitute,  however,  the  federal 
agricultural  agents  in  the  states.  The  federal 
organization  is  the  Department  of  Agriculture. 
The  concern  of  the  colleges  of  agriculture  has 
been  largely  the  increasing  of  the  productive- 
ness of  farming  by  teaching  this  phase  of  the 
subject  and  by  inquiring  for  new  truth.  The 
duty  of  the  experiment  stations  is  necessarily 
to  discover  truth  to  the  end  that  the  land  may 
yield  more  abundantly.  The  prime  function 
of  a  national  department  of  agriculture,  as  of 
other  centralized  government  bureaus,  is  reg- 
ulatory or  supervisory.  It  deals  with  distinctly 
national  questions,  that  is,  with  governmental 
questions.  The  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture,  however,  undertakes  technical 
investigational  work  in  the  states,  which  may 


State  and  Nation  97 

or  may  not  be  governmental,  and  for  which 
the  colleges  and  stations  are  now  organized. 
There  has  been  much  demand  for  this  kind 
of  work  and  also  much  need  for  it,  and  the 
Department  has  tried,  with  great  success,  to 
meet  the  demand.  The  agricultural  colleges 
and  experiment  stations  once  were  weak  be- 
cause undeveloped.  They  are  now  beginning 
to  grow  and  to  come  to  their  own.  They  are 
covering  a  broader  field.  Whatever  it  may  have 
been  necessary  for  the  Department  once  to  do, 
it  may  or  may  not  be  necessary  for  it  now  to 
do.  In  making  these  statements,  I  desire  only 
to  establish  the  fact  that  both  opportunity  and 
obligation  lie  with  states  and  localities,  —  to 
urge  not  that  the  Department  do  less  but  that 
the  states  do  more.  It  seems  to  me  that  we 
are  under  obligation  to  use  our  influence  to 
relieve  the  Department  of  the  necessity  of 
doing  some  of  the  work  that  congressmen  and 
others  are  disposed  to  ask  of  it. 

What  will   be   the  ultimate  relationship  be- 
tween appropriations  for  agricultural  work  by 
the  Congress  and  by  the  states,  I  do  not  now 
G 


98          The  State  and  the  Farmer 

propose  to  discuss.  Federal  appropriations 
will,  of  course,  increase ;  and  a  way  will  be 
found  whereby  an  increasing  proportion  of 
them  may  be  so  applied  and  disbursed  as  to 
stimulate  local  enterprise;  and  herein  lies  the 
possibility  of  the  most  fruitful  species  of  fed- 
eral and  state  cooperation.  Congress  might 
appropriate  funds  to  be  spent  directly  by  local 
governments:  the  funds  originate  with  the 
people  in  the  localities.  For  the  present,  let 
us  consider  that  there  are  regularly  established 
agencies  in  all  the  states  for  the  investigation 
of  technical  agricultural  problems  of  those 
states.  It  is  important  that  these  agencies  in- 
vestigate these  problems,  not  primarily  because 
the  agencies  happen  to  be  established,  or  be- 
cause competent  men  happen  to  be  connected 
with  them,  but  because  responsibility  should 
lie  at  home  with  the  people.  No  state  can 
delegate  to  Congress  the  obligation  of  meet- 
ing its  own  problems;  and  every  movement 
that  tends  to  weaken  local  responsibility  and 
initiative  is  a  distinct  menace  to  the  people. 
Whenever  the  people  are  taught  to  look  beyond 


Obligation  of  the  Commonwealth    99 

their  own  institutions  to  federal  institutions 
alone,  they  lose  opportunity  and  power  to  help 
themselves.  The  people  and  the  states  are  at 
fault  in  calling  to  Congress  when  they  should 
call  first  to  their  own  legislatures. 

I  conceive  of  only  two  usual  reasons  why  the 
national  Department  of  Agriculture  should 
now  be  called  on  by  the  states  to  undertake 
technical  agricultural  work  in  the  states:  (i) 
When  the  institutions  in  the  states  cannot  or 
will  not  undertake  the  work  themselves ;  (2) 
when  the  problems  seem  to  be  regional 
phases  of  questions  that  have  governmental 
bearings. 

(i)  In  the  first  set  of  cases,  it  is  equally 
the  obligation  of  the  state  to  handle  its 
own  special  problems  whether  or  not  its 
institutions  are  able  or  willing  to  do  so;  but 
when  the  states  are  new  or  undeveloped,  or 
when  the  neglect  of  the  problems  is  likely 
to  entail  serious  consequences  on  neighbor- 
ing states  or  even  on  its  own  people,  then 
it  may  be  necessary  to  call  on  the  federal 
government  directly  to  aid  or  to  interfere. 


ioo        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

(2)  Relatively  few  of  the  technical  agri- 
cultural problems  have  true  governmental 
or  regulatory  significance.  The  fact  that 
the  problems  are  common  to  many  or  even 
to  all  of  the  states  does  not  place  them  in 
this  category.  Some  technical  problems 
have  direct  governmental  significance  be- 
cause one  state  or  even  a  group  of  states 
does  not  afford  sufficient  base  on  which 
they  can  be  studied,  and  because  they  im- 
pose or  necessitate  regulation  or  elucidation 
by  a  central  authority :  the  study  of  meteor- 
ological conditions  is  a  typical  example. 
Some  problems  are  so  expensive  to  inves- 
tigate, that  state  governments  may  not  be 
able  to  handle  them.  There  may  be  certain 
other  problems  that  need  to  be  studied  in 
all  parts  of  the  country  in  order  that  general 
and  true  conclusions  may  be  drawn ;  these 
may  be  made  the  subjects  of  mutual  and 
genuine  cooperative  study  by  persons  in  the 
localities  organized  to  work  consistently  and 
harmoniously  for  a  sufficient  length  of  time 
to  arrive  at  useful  results. 


State  and  Federal  Spheres,       101 

Whenever  regional    information  is  desired 
by  the  government,  on  its  part,  there  will  be 
no  difficulty  in  arranging  for  the  securing  of 
it  through  the  regular  federal  agents  in  the 
states, — that  is,  through  the  agricultural  col- 
leges   and    experiment   stations, — either  from 
jfficers  of  the  stations  themselves  or  by  federal 
>fficers  delegated  for  the  time  being  to  the 
:olleges    or  stations  to   work  in    the    states, 
'he   college  and    experiment   station  will  be 
;lad  to  put  their  laboratories  and  facilities  at 
ic  disposal  of  any  investigator  who  wishes  to 
une  and  make  use  of  them.   They  would  not 
link  it  right,  however,  to  have  independent 
iboratories    or    fields    developed    alongside, 
'•en   though   requested   by  persons   in    their 
>wn  state  or  by  the  state  department  of  agri- 
ilture, — not  because  of  jealousy  (for  jealousy 
lould    be   unknown   to    scientific   men)    but 
Because  such  action  would   tend   to   diminish 
ie  confidence  of  its  own  people  in  the  local 
istitution,   depriving    the   institution   of    the 
ipport    it  needs  for   the  work  for  which  it 
is  created,  and  encouraging  in  the  people  a 


102        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

desire  or  willingness  to  shift  responsibility. 
Much  can  be  done  and  has  been  done  wisely 
to  strengthen  the  local  institutions  by  the 
timely  aid  and  suggestion  of  the  national 
Department ;  but  it  is  easy  to  see  that  such 
a  policy  might  arise  as  a  gradual  result  of  the 
best-intentioned  work  as  to  prove  in  the  end 
to  be  destructive  rather  than  constructive. 

States  rights. 

We  have  passed  the  old  formula  of  "states 
rights."  We  have  learned  that  certain  things 
would  better  be  delegated  to  federal  agencies. 
Consolidation  or  centralization  of  power  is  a 
necessity.  Yet  at  the  same  time  we  are  pressed 
by  the  necessity  of  maintaining  local  initiative 
and  vitality.  It  is  possible  to  centralize  power 
and  at  the  same  time  to  develop  the  locality- 
be  it  state,  county,  or  neighborhood — if  only 
we  keep  a  clear  distinction  of  functions.  The 
real  states'  rights  principle  underlies  the  devel- 
opment of  the  individual  and  the  community 
rather  than  the  maintenance  of  the  pride  and 
prerogative  of  the  commonwealth  as  an  organ- 


The  Sphere  of  the  State          103 

ism;  that  is,  it  means  community  privilege, 
duty  and  opportunity.  It  is  properly  a  strong 
internal  constructive  policy.  Such  policies  are 
more  and  more  delegated  to  Congress,  where 
fewer  persons  partake  in  them,  and  the  states 
are  not  developing  coordinately  with  the 
nation.  Government  should  be  kept  at  home. 
We  have  talked  much  about  states  rights, 
but  very  little  about  state  opportunity  or 
cooperation  between  the  states.  We  have 
tended  to  emphasize  separateness  rather  than 
unity.  The  American,  with  his  strong  ideas  of 
individualism,  has  really  made  less  progress 
toward  practical  democracy  in  some  directions 
than  some  of  the  monarchical  peoples.  The 
obligation  of  helping  its  people  rests  primarily 
on  the  state  organization ;  but  if  the  state  will 
not  render  this  aid,  the  federal  government 
must  do  it.  Of  all  affairs,  the  agricultural  are 
the  most  native  and  local,  and  need  to  have 
the  most  careful  concern  of  the  state  or  com- 
munity organization.  The  reasons  for  the 
recent  growth  of  centralized  federal  power  are 
at  least  of  two  classes :  The  growing  urgency 


IO4       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

of   inter-state    problems;    the    failure    of   the 
states  to  meet  all  of  their  responsibilities. 

The  question,  therefore,  is  broadly  one  of 
the  governmental  sphere  and  the  local  respon- 
sibility. We  need  to  distinguish  sharply  be- 
tween governmental  function  and  investiga- 
tional  function,  particularly  when  the  people 
have  already  provided  agencies  for  the  two. 
I  would  not  deny  to  any  federal  depart- 
ment either  the  right  or  the  need  to  exercise 
the  investigational  function,  but  it  seems  to 
me  that  it  is  the  secondary  function  and  to  be 
exercised  on  occasion.  Any  government  de- 
partment investigates  primarily  in  order  that  it 
may  coordinate,  regulate,  control,  supervise, 
set  in  motion,  and  determine  policies ;  it  also 
needs  to  maintain  research  for  the  purpose  of 
keeping  its  work  vital  and  sound;  but  the  great 
questions  of  organization  and  public  policy 
are  its  particular  sphere. 

The  coordinating  agencies. 

We  may  now  enquire  what  are  the  proper 
agencies  for  the  coordinating  of  the  isolated 


The  Two  Agencies         .     105 

and  scattered  forces  of  the  open  country,  and 
for  the  more  or  less  separate  functions  of  state 
and  federal  governments.  We  first  observe 
that  these  forces  are  of  very  many  kinds. 
They  constitute  one  public  question  only  as 
they  affect  persons  following  a  series  of  land- 
occupations;  but  the  same  forces  may  equally 
affect  other  persons.  These  agencies  are  of 
two  great  groups:  Those  that  are  educa- 
tional; those  that  are  regulatory  or  govern- 
mental. It  is  not  necessary  for  purposes  of 
administration  that  the  assembling  of  all  these 
rural  agencies  be  centered  in  one  bureau.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  is  distinct  reason  why 
they  should  not  be  so  centered, — in  the  fact 
that  agricultural  forces  are  of  right  not  iso- 
lated forces.  Since  many  of  them  are  broadly 
human,  some  of  their  significance  is  lost  when 
we  attempt  to  segregate  them. 

As  real  cooperative  work  crystallizes,  the  fed- 
eral departments  will  have  less  need  of  main- 
taining independent  relations  with  individual 
farmers  in  the  states.  They  will  deal  with 
broader  questions  of  policy  and  procedure  as 


io6        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

such  problems  are  accumulated,  the  accumu- 
lation being  very  likely  brought  about  under 
their  influence  or  suggestion  by  the  groups 
or  agencies  representing  localities. 

Coordination  of  educational  matters. 

Now,  we  can  have  no  system  and  no  sets  of 
rules  or  methods  to  impose  on  posterity.  There 
are  too  many  schemes  already.  No  man  can  de- 
termine the  details  for  the  future.  All  he  can 
wisely  do  is  to  enunciate  principles  (if  he  has 
the  penetration  to  discover  them)  and  estab- 
lish a  few  points  of  view.  Many  of  our  fairest 
schemes  fail  because  of  their  very  perfectness. 
It  requires  no  foresight  to  say,  however,  that 
since  what  we  are  calling  agricultural  education 
is  fundamental  and  not  class  education,  and 
since  there  is  a  bureau  of  education  of  the 
national  government,  the  coordinating  of  agri- 
cultural education  should  lie  with  that  bureau. 
Agricultural  education  is  in  need  of  measuring 
and  coordinating  with  education  in  general. 
If  this  function  should  not  lie  with  such  bureau, 
it  will  be  because  that  bureau  is  incompetent 


Agricultural  Education  107 

to  handle  it,  or  is  unsympathetic  toward  it,  or 
is  not  given  the  necessary  facilities. 

In  the  states,  the  regular  administrative  de- 
partments of  public  instruction  should  handle 
the  work  of  all  fundamental  elementary  and 
secondary  education.  They  will  need  to  call 
on  the  agricultural  colleges  for  help,  especi- 
ally in  the  training  of  teachers ;  but  they 
should  exercise  the  control.  The  trouble  is, 
however,  that  such  departments  have  not  risen 
to  this  opportunity,  and  the  agricultural  col- 
leges have  been  forced  to  take  up  the  work, 
and  the  leading  ones  of  these  institutions  are 
now  doing  all  grades  of  educational  service. 
Departments  of  education  are  likely  to  be  fol- 
lowers of  public  opinion  rather  than  makers  of 
it.  It  is  at  this  moment  a  serious  question 
whether  the  regular  administrative  state  de- 
partments or  the  colleges  of  agriculture  are 
to  carry  the  rural  work ;  but  the  opportunity 
lies  before  the  departments. 

Education  has  now  come  to  be  a  much 
broader  conception  than  the  work  of  formal 
schools.  It  covers  a  great  range  of  activities 


io8       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

looking  to  the  training  and  developing  of 
men.  It  is  most  unusual  that  in  a  country  in 
which  education  is  said  to  amount  to  a  reli- 
gion, there  should  be  so  little  centralization 
of  educational  control  and  coordination  at 
Washington.  There  is  continual  agitation  for 
the  establishment  of  new  executive  depart- 
ments of  government  to  represent  special 
public  interests.  This  agitation  will  likely 
increase.  Much  of  the  growth  in  governmen- 
tal functions  can  be  taken  care  of  by  enlarg- 
ing the  present  departments,  but  there  are 
certain  great  classes  of  progress  and  work 
that  cannot  be  so  accommodated ;  there  are 
still  great  series  of  questions  that  lie  outside 
the  ordinary  political  region,  of  which  pub- 
lic health  is  one.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
President's  cabinet  is  in  danger  of  becoming 
too  large.  It  occurs  to  me  that  there  should 
be  just  one  more  department  represented  in 
the  cabinet,  and  it  should  be  of  such  nature 
that  it  can  contain  within  itself  all  questions 
that  will  have  to  do  with  the  general  public 
welfare  outside  the  field  of  regular  govern- 


National  Department  of  Education  109 

mental   function   as  we   understand   it  today; 
and  this  should  be  a  Department  of  Education. 

Coordination  of  agricultural  matters. 

The  coordination  of  the  real  agricultural 
questions  of  national  scope  should  lie,  of 
course,  with  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture.  With  the  rapid  growth  in  scope 
and  influence  of  this  Department  and  the  vast 
agricultural  interests  of  the  nation  before  it, 
the  place  that  this  great  executive  organiza- 
tion is  to  occupy  is  beyond  all  conception. 
All  our  political  and  social  future  is  condi- 
tioned on  the  resources  of  the  soil.  It  is 
easy  for  the  on-looker  to  see  that  the  De- 
partment is  gradually  reshaping  itself.  Its 
work  is  becoming  more  educational,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  has  acquired  tremendous  and 
permanent  power  in  police  work  and  in  regu- 
lation. It  is  most  interesting  that  the  organi- 
zation of  this  Department,  with  its  sister,  the 
Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  should 
have  been  delayed  so  long.  They  represent 
finally  the  essential  internal  development  of  a 


no       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

nation;  for  the  effectiveness  of  a  nation  rests 
on  its  farms,  shops,  mines,  commerce,  and  the 
plain  daily  welfare  of  the  people. 

We  must  now  consider  what  are  the  state 
agencies  or  instruments  with  which  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture  is  to  coop- 
erate in  its  coming  organization  work.  Of 
course  it  should  cooperate  with  all  agencies ; 
but  there  must  be  some,  more  than  others, 
with  which  it  can  work  most  intimately  and 
authoritatively.  These  agencies  in  the  states 
are  the  colleges  and  experiment  stations 
founded  on  federal  grants ;  these  institutions 
stand  in  much  the  same  relation  to  the  state, 
so  far  as  leadership  is  concerned,  as  the  United 
States  Department  stands  to  the  nation.  It 
might  seem,  at  first  thought,  that  the  state 
departments  of  agriculture  are  the  proper 
official  channels  through  which  general  educa- 
tional and  organizational  work  should  be 
accomplished.  It  is  a  fact,  however,  that  these 
departments,  speaking  broadly,  have  not  risen 
to  leadership.  Their  proper  field  is  closely 
governmental,  inspectional  and  regulatory. 


State  Agricultural  Agencies       in 

They  do  not  have  sufficient  administrative 
freedom  to  undertake  such  extensional  work 
as  I  have  now  in  mind.  Their  organization 
and  scope  is  quite  unlike  that  of  the  national 
Department.  They  do  not  have  the  staff  of 
trained  scientific  experts ;  nor  is  it  likely  that 
they  will  ever  be  provided  with  them,  seeing 
that  the  leading  states  are  now  committing 
themselves  unreservedly  to  the  development  of 
their  agricultural  colleges  along  these  very 
lines.  Moreover,  with  the  necessary  extension 
of  governmental  interference  with  agricultural 
affairs,  these  state  departments  will  become 
more  and  more  a  part  of  the  government  of 
the  states,  and  will  have  their  attention  occu- 
pied with  very  extended  legal  and  supervisory 
functions;  it  will  be  a  part  of  their  sphere  to 
cooperate  with  the  national  Department  in 
these  governmental  functions. 

4.    THE   RE-DIRECTING  OF   RURAL 
INSTITUTIONS 

The  great  rural  movement  of  the  future  is 
to  be  the  evolving  of  a  new  social  economy. 


iia        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

This  is  to  be  the  lasting  work  of  all  national! 
and  state  agricultural  institutions.  It  is  a  work] 
that  is  yet  scarcely  begun  in  this  country., 
What  progress  has  been  made  in  this  develop-) 
ment  has  been  mostly  accidental. 

The  work  of  the  agricultural  institutions  has) 
been  directed  chiefly  to  increase  the  product- 1 
iveness  of  the  land — to  make  the  farm  earni 
more   money.    The   agricultural  colleges,  for 
example,  have  properly  laid  their  emphasis  on 
this  line  of   teaching;   but  in  so  doing    they! 
have    themselves   contributed    to   the   mainte- 
nance of  agricultural  isolation.    To  make  the 
farm  more  productive  must  continue  to  be  the  I 
primary  effort  of  these  and  similar  institutions; 
but  the  time  has  now  come  when  the  colleges 
and  all  public  agricultural  agencies  must  join 
in  the  effort  to  improve  and  extend  the  social( 
welfare  of  the  persons  who  live  on  the  land. 
The  farmer  is  a  member  of  the  community. 

In  other  words,  while  we  need  new  knowl-  j 
edge,  we  need  more  than  this  to  put  the| 
knowledge  that  we  now  possess  into  practi-j 
cable  and  workable  form ;  we  must  make  it  a  * 


Change  of  Face  113 

:ry  part  of  the  men  who  till  the  land,  and 
must  work  out  a  means  of  working  together. 
The  greatest  need  is  a  radical  revivifying  and 
redirecting  of  all  rural  institutions.  This  is 
to  take  the  form  of  a  great  constructive  work, 
lifting  the  individual  by  developing  the  asso- 
ciative spirit  in  such  a  way  that  he  may  retain 
his  own  self-help  at  the  same  time  that  he 
secures  the  help  of  his  fellow  and  the  incentive 
of  community  action. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  the  necessity  for  a 
change  of  face:  we  have  maintained  our  posi- 
tion by  means  of  vast  extents  of  virgin  land 
rather  than  by  the  excellence  of  our  agricultural 
methods.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  one  of 
the  most  matured  European  observers  charac- 
terizes our  farm  management,  particularly  in 
the  corn-belt,  as  "unparalleled  in  its  wasteful- 
ness," setting  up  "a  false  economic  standard 
in  the  industrial  life  of  the  agricultural  classes, 
and  will  prove  to  be  a  bad  preparation  for  the 
less  bountiful  times  that  must  some  day 
come."  Every  student  of  the  economic  condi- 
tion must  feel  that  the  present  unstudied  or 
H 


H4       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

neglected  type  of  individual  farm  management 
must  be  reduced  to  orderliness  and  effective- 
ness. The  problem  will  arise  here  as  it  has 
arisen  in  Denmark,  Ireland  and  other  coun- 
tries, unless  we  profit  by  their  example  and 
meet  it  in  advance. 

The  necessity  for  working  together. 

A  widespread  system  of  cooperation  must 
come  for  the  open  country.  When  I  write  the 
word  cooperation,  I  use  it  in  its  true  sense.  I 
do  not  mean  on  the  one  hand  a  mere  factitious 
business  organization  for  buying  and  selling 
alone,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  so-called  "coop- 
erative work"  of  an  educational  or  investiga- 
tional  nature  with  individuals  here  and  there. 
Individuals  pass;  their  influence  mostly  passes 
with  them.  Two  individuals  acting  in  unison 
or  in  coordination  are  more  effective  than  the 
same  two  persons  acting  separately.  If  these 
two  combine  with  another  two,  the  effect 
is  more  than  twice  increased.  True  cooperat- 
ive work  with  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
or  with  an  agricultural  college  operates  with 


What  Cooperation  Is  115 

Toups  or  societies  of  men,  rather  than  with 
>olated  men :  the  effect  of  the  work  is  aug- 
lented,  energy   is  conserved,  and,  most    im- 
>ortant  of  all,  an  organization  is  left  behind  to 
:ontinue   the  work,  or  at  least  to  advise  the 
itilizing  of  the  lessons  that  have  been  learned. 
Any  group-association  that  crystallizes  about 
a    real   economic    problem    has    the    spur  of 
necessity  and  therefore  has  vitality.    All  such 
local  units  should  be  known  to  somebody,  and 
all  of  them  should  be  organized   into  larger 
units.    All  of  them  should  be  encouraged,  for 
they  are  the  very  germs  of  a  new  social  order. 
Some    central  agency  should    coordinate   and 
integrate    them   all  so    that,  while  every  one 
maintains    its    complete  autonomy,  altogether 
they  may  progress  toward  definite  social  ends. 
In-  New  York,  for  example,  there  are  more 
than  two  thousand  creameries,  skimming-sta- 
tions and  similar  organizations,  many  of  them 
more  or   less  cooperative :     What    an  oppor- 
tunity to  reach  and  energize  the  dairy  indus- 
try!   Some    state    agency    should    coordinate 
them  on  an   educational    basis ;    other   states 


n6        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

should  coordinate  their  associations;  the  fed- 
eral government  should  coordinate  them  all. 
To  assemble,  direct,  strengthen,  to  make 
effective  the  native  cooperating  expressions  of 
the  people,  is  an  office  the  results  of  which  are 
beyond  all  imagination.  All  agricultural  expe- 
rience, all  experiments,  all  investigations  made 
here  and  there  by  institutions  established  for 
the  purpose,  even  all  police  work  and  the 
ordinary  functions  of  government,  should  be 
assembled,  solidified,  and  educationalized.  It 
will  be  necessary  for  governments  to  send  out 
regular  agents  or  organizers  for  this  class  of 
work  in  the  communities.  In  backward  com- 
munities, it  may  be  necessary  for  such  agents 
even  to  organize  cooperative  creameries  and 
other  economic  groups. 

The  economic  organizations. 

It  is  a  poor  country  that  does  not  support 
organizations  to  further  its  economic  or  busi- 
ness interests.  We  must  have  associations  of 
some  kind  to  further  the  interests  of  milk- 
producers,  creamerymen,  breeders,  poultry- 


Agricultural  Societies  117 

men,  cotton -growers,  florists,  nurserymen, 
seedsmen,  evaporated  -  apple  men,  fruit-grow- 
ers, melon- growers,  bee-keepers,  horsemen, 
shippers,  and  the  like.  When  such  economic 
groups  do  not  exist,  it  is  the  business  of  some 
one  to  see  that  they  do  exist;  and,  if  they  do 
exist,  it  is  the  business  of  some  one  to  see  that 
they  are  more  effective.  Society  cannot  escape 
the  responsibility  of  being  concerned  in  such 
group-associations.  They  register  the  effect- 
iveness of  the  community. 

Agricultural  organizations  have  undergone 
an  interesting  evolution  in  this  country.  Some 
of  the  early  groups  were  on  the  plan  of  a 
"society  for  the  promotion  of  agricultural 
knowledge,"  apparently  patterned  after  the 
so-called  learned  societies.  The  proceedings 
must  have  been  ponderous.  These  appear  to 
have  been  followed  by  the  democratic  discus- 
sion-society, still  reigning  in  many  forms.  A 
social  basis  developed  with  the  grange.  Coop- 
erative groups  have  arisen,  but  as  yet  with 
too  little  net  results  (p.  72);  in  some  regards 
we  are  behind  our  European  neighbors.  The 


u8        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

educationalized  association  is  now  developing, 
centering  about  the  colleges  of  agriculture 
in  the  form  of  short-courses  and  "  farmers' 
weeks. "  The  continuing  cooperating  working 
society  is  yet  to  come  with  us. 

The  associations  reflect  the  spirit  of  the  per- 
sons who  compose  them.  They  ought  to  be 
the  mainspring  of  all  good  works  in  the  com- 
munity. Every  agricultural  community  ought 
to  have  something  like  a  board  of  trade,  hold- 
ing regular  meetings  in  a  regular  place.  It  is 
unfortunate  that  boards  of  trade  are  practi- 
cally affairs  of  cities  and  villages. 

What  agricultural  societies  can  do. 

One  of  the  commonest  causes  of  discourage- 
ment in  a  farming  business  arises  from  the 
failure  to  utilize  local  or  neighborhood  experi- 
ence. In  every  community  there  has  necessarily 
developed  a  body  of  experience  which  should 
be  of  great  value  to  the  whole  community  if 
only  it  were  collected  and  arranged  so  that  con- 
clusions could  be  drawn.  Here  is  most  useful 
work  for  any  local  society.  In  every  neighbor- 


Farmers1  Questions  119 

hood  there  is  probably  some  person  who  has 
the  ability  and  temper  to  enable  him  to  collect 
and  collate  such  experience.  A  great  many  of 
the  questions  that  come  to  the  agricultural  con- 
ventions and  to  the  agricultural  colleges  and 
experiment  stations  could  be  better  answered 
at  home  if  only  the  local  experience  were  avail- 
able for  public  use.  In  attending  agricultural 
conventions,  I  am  always  impressed  with  the 
waste  of  effort  in  discussing  questions  of  a 
purely  local  character.  In  considerable  editor- 
ial experience,  I  have  had  the  same  feeling.  It 
is  necessary  to  answer  over  and  over  again  the 
questions  that  have  already  been  asked  and 
answered  over  and  over  again,  until  one  almost 
comes  to  feel  that  the  work  is  not  progressive. 
I  must  not  be  understood  as  advising  that 
these  questions  be  not  asked  or  answered:  I 
only  wish  that  we  had  the  means  of  answering 
them  more  definitely  and  in  the  place  where 
the  answers  would  have  significance.  There 
are  different  kinds  of  questions  to  be  asked  in 
different  kinds  of  conventions. 

Every  agricultural  society  needs  to  empha- 


I2O        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

size  the  public-service  phase  of  its  work.  This 
phase  of  society  work  is  not  yet  understood 
in  this  country.  Fifty  years  from  now  it  will  be 
the  dominant  note  in  all  rural  societies.  I  am 
quite  sure  that  I  have  not  the  power  to  make 
my  meaning  wholly  clear  or  to  convey  a  vivid 
picture  of  what  I  have  in  prospect.  We  are  so 
unaccustomed  to  thinking  of  such  subjects  that 
we  have  not  yet  developed  a  point  of  view  or 
a  vocabulary. 

Consider,  in  the  first  place,  that  practically 
every  man  has  stood  alone  in  his  farming,  and 
has  been  obliged  to  contend  with  all  the 
organized  interests  of  the  business  world. 
The  result  is  that  he  is  a  negligible  factor  in 
trade,  in  a  great  part.  What  is  true  in  busi- 
ness relations  is  more  broadly  true  in  social 
relations.  Our  present  greatest  need  is  the 
development  of  what  may  be  called  "the  com- 
munij^-sense" — the  idea  of  the  community,  as 
a  whole,  working  together  toward  one  result. 
We  must  admit  that  there  is  now  a  deplorable 
lack  of  any  associative  effort  that  commands 
respect  and  puts  things  through.  This  com- 


A  Horticultural  Society  121 

munity  sense  must  be  accomplished,  as  I  have 
suggested,  by  the  organizing  of  many  local 
societies  or  clubs,  and  the  coordinating  of 
these  into  larger  societies.  If  the  individual 
farmer,  working  alone,  is  a  weak  economic  and 
social  unit,  so  the  isolated  society  or  club  is 
also  weak. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  present  any  plan  of 
developing  the  community  sense,  but  only  to 
enforce  its  necessity  to  a  better  and  more 
fruitful  country  life.  As  a  practical  matter, 
the  developing  of  an  effective  community  feel- 
ing must  rest  with  the  leadership  of  some  one 
strong  organization.  I  once  suggested  to  a 
noted  horticultural  society  that  it  might  well 
determine  for  its  members  many  of  the  vexed 
questions  concerned  with  the  varieties  of 
fruits  by  establishing  demonstration  or  volun- 
teer orchards.  Then  I  suggested  that  it  had  a 
privilege  and  a  duty  touching  useful  horticul- 
tural education  of  a  collegiate  grade.  Later, 
I  suggested  that  such  society  should  have  a 
continuous  working  existence  throughout  the 
year,  engaging  in  the  organizing  of  subordi- 


122       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

nate  or  contributory  groups.  It  is  a  question 
whether,  in  these  new  days,  a  yearly  conven- 
tion is  sufficiently  effective.  The  time  has 
come  when  we  ought  to  distinguish  between 
conventions  and  organizations.  The  reason 
why  the  grange  is  so  very  strong  in  the  states 
in  which  it  is  well  organized,  is  because  it  is  in 
operation  continuously.  Association  is  as- 
suredly the  keynote  of  the  future;  but  the 
association  of  which  I  speak  is  very  different 
from  the  labor-union  kind. 

The  cooperative  spirit  is  far  broader  than 
that  expressed  in  formal  organizations.  It  is 
also  the  basis  of  good  government. 

Possible  extent  ;•/  associative  work. 

Every  kind  of  organization  that  now  exists 
in  the  open  country,  and  which  can  be  readily 
extended  to  the  open  country,  may  be  made 
the  means  of  carrying  the  gospel  of  coopera- 
tion, companionship  and  better  farm  life  to 
the  persons  who  live  on  the  land.  A  new 
meaning  must  be  given  to  societies.  No  so- 
ciety should  be  maintained  merely  for  the 


Native  Organizations  123 

purpose  of  entertainment,  but  it  should  have 
vital  relation  to  the  real  affairs  of  the  com- 
munity of  which  it  is  a  part.  The  number  of 
rural  organizations  and  associations  is  surpris- 
ingly large,  even  not  counting  the  technical 
agricultural  societies  and  groups  (which  are 
really  the  most  effective  of  all).  It  is  not  so 
necessary  to  organize  new  groups  as  it  is  to 
fertilize  and  redirect  -the  old  ones.  Rural 
institutions  ought  to  be  effective  because  they 
are,  for  the  most  part,  natural  expressions  of 
indigenous  needs,  the  outcome  of  the  com- 
munity's work.  Many  of  the  city  institutions 
are  creations  of  some  person's  philosophy 
or  the  expression  of  some  fad  or  fashion, 
and  they  are  likely  to  be  imposed  on  the 
community  rather  than  to  grow  out  of  the 
community. 

Let  me  enumerate  some  of  the  group-asso- 
ciations that  might  easily  aid  in  the  regenera- 
tion of  country  life  if  they  were  not  so  closely 
tied  to  their  customs  and  traditions:  The 
school;  the  church;  fraternal  societies  of  all 
kinds;  Christian  associations  for  men  and 


124       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

women  and  for  both;  all  singing  schools  and 
musical  clubs ;  reading  clubs  and  library  asso- 
ciations; women's  clubs;  historical  societies; 
athletic  organizations,  and  all  groups  that 
might  develop  the  play  spirit  and  revive  the 
native  games;  local  political  organizations, 
that  might  give  as  much  attention  to  develop- 
ing or  promoting  the  community  as  to  putting 
some  one  in  office ;  the  good  roads  interest, 
which  is  now  easy  of  organization  and  direc- 
tion ;  banks,  which  might  have  relation  to  the 
welfare  of  the  community  as  well  as  to  them- 
selves, as  is  shown  by  various  European  expe- 
rience ;  chambers  of  commerce  and  business 
men's  organizations  in  the  smaller  cities,  that 
might  extend  their  efforts  beyond  the  corpor- 
ation lines,  associating  the  country  merchants 
and  traders  with  them ;  civic  societies ;  im- 
provement and  art  societies.  In  the  way  of 
economic  group-associations,  the  cooperative 
creamery  may  be  cited  as  a  representative  ex- 
ample. In  a  dairy  country,  such  an  institution 
not  only  works  an  improvement  in  farm  prac- 
tice and  develops  a  market,  but  it  makes  a 


Government  in  Rural  Communities    125 

meeting-place    and   thereby   should    come    to 
be  a  useful  center  of  local  interest. 


government. 

When,  from  long  association,  we  become 
accustomed  to  an  institution,  we  lose  our  habit 
of  challenging  it.  It  is  a  question,  for  exam- 
ple, whether  we  do  not  need  a  redirection  in 
rural  government.  The  rural  people  are  not 
inert,  as  they  are  often  said  to  be,  nor  are  they 
incompetent,  but  the  systems  whereby  men 
are  organized  and  affairs  are  directed  are  likely 
to  be  incomplete,  ineffective,  and  to  lack 
vitality.  I  think  we  need  more  active  and  com- 
pact rural  government.  I  am  afraid  that  some 
of  our  systems  of  governing  the  open  country 
may  be  found  to  be  antiquated  and  inadequate. 

Community  government  should  not  devote 
its  chief  attention  to  mere  regulation  and  to 
support  of  defectives  and  dependents.  Its  first 
concern  should  be  to  set  productive  forces 
in  operation.  One  community  should  emulate 
another.  Even  state  legislatures  are  likely  rela- 
tively to  disregard  constructive  enterprises. 


ia6        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

Application  of  public  money. 

Again,  the  agencies  that  will  develop  the 
institutions  of  the  open  country  will  rest  on 
a  type  of  mind  of  town  folk  quite  as  much 
as  on  the  activity  of  the  country  folk.  The 
town  folk  should  consider  it  to  their  interest 
that  the  drainage  cityward  does  not  go  too 
far.  The  town  must  recognize  its  obligation 
to  the  agricultural  country.  In  New  York,  for 
example,  85  per  cent  of  the  taxes  are  paid  by 
Greater  New  York  and  Buffalo,  notwithstand- 
ing that  there  are  probably  a  million  farm 
people  in  the  state,  and  a  farm  property  valu- 
ation of  much  more  than  one  billion  of  dollars. 
But  this  great  fact  constitutes  no  reason  of 
itself  why  these  cities  should  control  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  tax  money  of  the  state,  or 
even  of  all  the  tax  money  that  they  themselves 
contribute;  for  the  wealth  of  the  cities  did  not 
originate  in  the  cities.  A  good  part  of  it  has 
come  from  farms  in  New  York  state  and  else- 
where. The  farmers  have  given  the  city  traders 
an  opportunity  to  trade,  and  often  to  make 
more  money  in  the  mere  trading  than  the 


Destiny  of  Tax  Money  127 


farmer  made  in  the  producing.  If  there  have 
been  in-gathering  agencies,  so  also  should  there 
be  distributing  agencies  back  to  the  sources. 

It  is  a  wrong  philosophy  that  would  apply 
the  proceeds  of  taxation  only  to  the  localities 
in  which  they  originate.  The  state  is  an  organ- 
ism, and  cities,  like  the  country,  are  only  parts 
thereof.  Whatever  may  be  said  for  or  against 
strong  centralization  of  government,  it  has  the 
tremendous  advantage  of  being  able  to  expend 
the  revenues  collected  of  all  the  people  in  the 
interest  of  all  the  people.  All  along,  the  cities 
seem  to  have  carried  the  idea  that  the  country 
is  answerable  chiefly  to  them;  but  the  city,  also, 
is  equally  obligated  to  aid  its  contributory  coun- 
try— to  do  its  share  in  the  furnishing  of  public 
revenues  wherewith  to  build  country  highways, 
country  churches,  country  schools,  and  other 
rural  institutions,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
allow  the  country  the  controlling  voice  in  the 
disposition  of  these  funds. 

Something  of  the  same  kind  may  come,  as  I 
have  already  suggested  (page  98),  in  the  ap- 
portioning of  funds  by  Congress  back  to  the 


ia8       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

people  with  whom  they  originated,  giving  to 
the  people  in  the  localities  the  responsibility 
of  using  them.  The  Land-Grant  Act  of  1862, 
establishing  the  colleges  of  agriculture  and 
mechanic  arts,  is  of  this  nature;  so  is  the 
Experiment  Station  Act  of  1887,  although  the 
state  autonomy  is  less  complete  in  this  case. 

"Banks. 

We  need  carefully  to  consider  the  migration 
of  money.  I  have  already  indicated  that  money 
tends  always  to  pass  out  and  away  from  the 
place  of  its  origin.  It  is  multiplied  as  it  goes ; 
but  a  good  part  of  it  ought  nevertheless  to 
describe  an  orbit  and  come  back  to  its  local- 
ity. Better  still,  a  good  part  of  it  ought  to  be 
kept  in  the  locality  for  local  uses.  Banking 
institutions  ought  to  be  agencies  for  more 
directly  developing  the  region  of  which  they 
are,  or  ought  to  be,  a  part,  by  keeping  suffi- 
cient money  moving  in  the  region  to  supply 
its  needs  freely.  These  institutions  now  exist, 
in  this  country,  for  the  stockholders,  who  are 
usually  not  producers.  I  am  always  impressed 


Cooperative  Banks  129 

with  the  palatial  buildings  that  banks  are  able 
to  erect.  In  other  countries  there  are  cooper- 
ative associations  that  find  money  for  their 
members  to  use  in  the  making  of  the  crops. 
Because  of  the  prosperity  and  consequent 
independence  of  the  American  farmer,  the  lack 
of  loanable  capital  has  not  been  a  serious 
handicap,  except  perhaps  in  the  South,  but  he 
could  nevertheless  use  such  capital  to  very 
great  advantage. 

A  fault  with  our  banks,  considered  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  development  of  the  commun- 
ity, is  the  fact  that  they  loan  only  on  property, 
thereby  eliminating  the  poor  farmer  just  in  the 
proportion  of  his  needs.  Moreover,  they  loan 
on  too  short  time,  as  a  rule,  to  cover  the  mak- 
ing of  a  crop.  The  result  is  that  the  farmer  is 
driven  to  the  merchant  and  the  usurer.  In  the 
South,  where  the  lien  system  has  been  in  oper- 
ation, the  merchant  is  likely  to  refuse  to  loan 
to  a  man  who  desires  to  change  his  system  of 
farming,  even  to  improve  it,  fearing  that  it  may 
be  only  an  experiment ;  the  result  is  that  the 
lien  system  becomes  a  preventive  of  progress. 
I 


130       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

Some  of  the  European  systems  have  demon- 
strated that  it  is  perfectly  feasible  and  safe  to 
loan  money  on  the  industry  and  honesty  of 
members,  thereby  not  only  furnishing  the  nec- 
essary funds  but  putting  a  premium  on  char- 
acter and  thrift,  and  keeping  the  money  at 
work  where  it  is  needed.  The  cooperative 
systems  find  it  advantageous  to  employ  agents 
to  instruct  their  members  in  farming,  becom- 
ing thereby  a  social  and  educational  force  in 
the  locality.  Our  banking  systems  are  devised 
for  the  handlers  of  money,  whereas  some  of 
them,  at  least,  should  be  devised  for  the  work- 
ers and  common  users.  Banks,  as  well  as  gov- 
ernment and  schools,  should  be  native. 

Fairs. 

The  fairs  are  one  of  the  anomalies  of  the 
present  time.  If  one  is  interested  in  the  evo- 
lution of  institutions  and  the  persistence  of 
customs,  he  can  find  here  material  for  long 
and  rewarding  study.  In  great  part  the  fairs 
are  meaningless  and  are  not  agricultural  insti- 
tutions. They  display  the  unusual  and  abnor- 


The  Fairs  131 

mal,  they  exhibit  the  prodigies,  they  encour- 
age a  class  of  professional  exhibitors,  they 
attract  the  gaudy  and  the  doubtful ;  they  are, 
in  fact,  largely  exclamational.  There  is  per- 
manent discussion  as  to  the  allowing  of  racing 
and  betting  and  of  mere  performing;  but 
these  things  are  really  symptoms  after  all,  and 
the  real  solution  is  to  redirect  the  whole 
enterprise. 

County  and  local  fairs  might  well  be  part 
of  a  thoroughly  organized  state  system,  and 
be  taken  out  of  the  influence  of  showmen  and 
race-track  gamblers.  The  fair  should  be  a 
kind  of  school,  and  its  work  and  influence 
should  exist  continuously  throughout  the  year. 
The  fair  ground  itself  should  not  be  idle  fifty- 
one  weeks  every  year.  Its  facilities  could  be 
used  for  many  exhibits  and  schools  at  other 
times ;  and  a  good  part  of  the  grounds  could 
be  utilized  by  school  children  or  others  to 
grow  plants  that  should  stand  in  exhibition 
and  teach  a  lesson  when  the  fair  comes'round. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  hope  that  fair  grounds 
may  some  day  contain  school-gardens.  Such 


132        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

an  associative  organization  should  go  with  a 
fair  as  will  keep  intending  participants — I  do 
not  like  the  word  exhibitors — in  a  state  of 
preparation  and  attention  for  the  whole  year. 
The  fairs  should  reach  all  farm  children.  And 
the  significance  of  everything  that  is  shown  at 
a  fair  should  be  explained  by  a  good  teacher 
standing  on  the  spot. 

The  rural  church. 

I  have  said  (page  17)  that  the  country 
church  is  not  accomplishing  what  it  might 
for  the  rural  communities.  This  is  not  due  to 
lack  of  devoted  service  on  the  part  of  the 
country  pastor,  but  to  a  need  of  re-direction 
in  the  institution.  Concerned  in  too  many 
cases  with  technical  religion,  formal  piety, 
small  and  empty  social  duties,  the  country 
church  does  not  appeal  strongly  to  men  with 
rich  red  blood  in  their  veins.  The  hardness  of 
the  dogma  is  the  measure  of  the  sterility.  The 
trouble  is  that  the  rural  church  has  no  organic 
connection  with  the  life  of  the  community,  in 
this  regard  being  worse  off  than  the  school. 


Country  Church  133 

It  needs  spiritualizing.  It  should  express  and 
encourage  the  natural  inspiration  that  may  be 
made  to  flow  from  the  common  affairs  and 
ractices  of  any  agricultural  community.  Are 
t  the  plants  growing  and  the  animals  thriv- 
g?  Are  not  the  crops  going  in  and  the  har- 
vests gathering?  Are  not  the  winds  blowing 
and  the  rain  falling  ?  Are  not  these  real  things, 
that  every  person  understands  and  that  can  be 
made  the  means  of  reaching  every  man  who  has 
them?  Yet  all  these  things  are  practically  a 
sealed  book  to  the  church.  The  rural  church 
buildings  are  essentially  what  they  were  fifty 
years  ago, — a  preaching  room  and  a  vestibule. 
Why  not  make  a  country  church  a  social  center, 
letting  it  stand  for  good  works  in  everything 
that  interests  the  community,  and  placing  it 
in  some  direct  relation  to  vocation? 

The  church  is  the  oldest  and  completest  of 
organizations.  It  is  deepest  in  the  affections 
of  the  greatest  number  of  persons.  We  can- 
not afford  the  waste  of  effort  that  results  from 
the  decadence  of  the  rural  units.  There  is 
urgent  need  that  we  utilize  this  institution  for 


134       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

the  quickening  of  country  life,  making  such 
life  worth  the  attention  of  educated  young 
men,  and  developing  its  natural  and  legitimate 
social  attractiveness. 

There  is  no  greater  field  for  service  than  in 
the  country  church.  Young  men  should  be 
prepared  consciously  for  this  service.  A  good 
part  of  the  training  should  be  in  social  ques- 
tions in  their  rural  phases.  A  course  in  a  good 
agricultural  college  might  supplement  the  train- 
ing in  the  theological  seminary.  Religion 
should  be  native.  It  should  be  concrete  and 
applicable.  Religion  is  the  natural  expression 
of  living,  not  a  set  of  actions  or  of  habits,  or 
a  posture  of  mind  added  to  the  daily  life.  The 
type  of  religion,  therefore,  is  conditioned  on 
the  kind  of  living;  and  the  kind  of  living  is 
conditioned,  in  its  turn,  very  largely  on  the 
physical  and  economic  effectiveness  of  life. 
The  religion  of  the  open  country  should 
run  deep  into  the  indigenous  affairs  of  the 
open  country.  Everything  with  which  men 
have  to  do  needs  to  be  spiritualized.  This 
is  much  more  effective  for  our  civilization 


What  Education  Should  Do       135 

than    merely    to    spiritualize    things    that    we 
hope  for. 

5.  THE   DEVELOPING  OF  APPLICABLE 
EDUCATION 


It  is  not  enough  that  education  facilities  be 
provided  for  all  the  people:  the  education 
must  have  meaning.  It  is  true,  of  course,  that 
the  function  of  education  is  to  develop  and 
train  the  mind ;  but  the  mind  may  be  trained 
by  means  of  many  subjects,  and  some  subjects 
or  processes  are  best  for  one  group  of  persons 
and  other  processes  for  other  groups.  As 
farming  is  a  local  business,  so  is  it  specially 
important  that  the  affairs  and  objects  of  the 
locality  be  made  part  of  the  means  of  training 
the  farmer. 

Education  is  not  confined  to  the  institutions 
known  as  schools.  It  is  the  result  of  all  experi- 
ence and  all  training.  Many  new  agencies  are 
contributing  directly  to  this  training  or  are 
modifying  its  application.  Some  day  the 
school  will  utilize  and  direct  the  experience 
that  the  child  gains  in  its  home  life^  as  well  as, 


136       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

in  its  school  life,  toward  a  distinct  educational 
end. 

Special  adaptation  of  the  school  to  the  needs 
of  farm  laborers  is  now  very  much  needed. 
Neither  the  agricultural  college  nor  the  ordi- 
nary type  of  rural  school  can  reach  this  end. 
Farms  are  not  training  farm  artisans  as  the 
shops  are  training  shop  artisans.  The  shops 
are  amongst  our  very  best  schools.  The  farm- 
artisan  school  must  be  taken  into  the  locality 
where  the  artisans  are.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
it  can  be  a  night  school.  It  may  have  to  be  a 
local  winter  school  taught  in  a  new  way  as  an 
adult  school,  until  the  farms  themselves  are 
good  enough  and  well  enough  organized  to  be 
schools  to  train  their  own  men.  The  reading- 
clubs  now  proceeding  from  a  few  colleges  of 
agriculture  suggest  the  beginnings  of  a  new 
movement  for  community  and  home  education 
of  this  kind. 

Necessity  of  new  point  of  view. 

Although  we  are  properly  proud  of  our 
public  schools,  we  should  not  cease  to  challenge 


College  Domination  137 

them.  We  are  now  in  the  epoch  of  the 
domination  of  the  schools  by  the  colleges. 
Narrow  literary  college  entrance  require- 
ments are  wholly  out  of  character  with  the 
present  necessities  of  living.  As  soon  as  the 
public  schools  begin  to  connect  with  the 
industries,  all  antiquated  kinds  of  tests 
must  go;  I  look  for  secondary  teaching  in 
agriculture  to  help  in  this,  although  at  pre- 
sent we  have  no  schools  to  articulate  with 
the  people  on  the  one  hand  and  the  col- 
leges of  agriculture  on  the  other.  The  high 
school  has  been  over-developed  in  its  prevail- 
ing form.  It  probably  represents  the  end  of  a 
line  of  social  evolution,  and  we  may  need  to 
go  back  and  take  a  new  start. 

The  schools  are  dominated  too  much  by 
system  and  regularity.  The  control  by  state 
departments  is  constantly  becoming  more 
rigid.  Our  effort  seems  to  be  to  make  the 
educational  processes  uniform  for  all  pupils, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  no  two  pupils 
are  or  ought  to  be  alike.  There  is  now  agita- 
tion for  more  thorough  supervision  of  the  rural 


138        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

schools,  and  such  supervision  is  undoubtedly 
necessary;  but  if  this  supervision  is  to  result 
in  complete  domination  by  a  central  authority 
at  the  capitol,  we  can  well  afford  to  wait. 

There  seems  to  be  little  personal  life-motive 
in  our  education.  The  process  produces  pas- 
sive or  static  results.  It  does  not  seem  to 
develop  the  quality  of  leadership,  as  it  should. 
We  over- emphasize  the  importance  of  mere 
verbal  accuracy  and  breed  in  our  pupils  a  de- 
pressing fear  of  making  mistakes.  The  schools 
do  not  send  their  graduates  home  to  work  in 
village-improvement  societies,  civic  clubs,  farm- 
ers' organizations,  mosquito  extermination,  or 
to  give  them  a  just  point  of  view  on  the  com- 
mon affairs  of  the  community.  Part  of  this  lack 
is  no  doubt  due  to  ineffective  home  training. 
With  the  growth  of  leisure  in  cities  and  towns, 
children  are  not  trained  to  the  responsibility  of 
work.  They  read  novels  and  entertainment- 
periodicals,  and  are  afraid  of  soiling  their 
clothes.  We  are  developing  a  kind  of  artistic 
idleness.  The  pity  is  that  it  is  considered  to 
be  respectable. 


The  Sit-still  Method  139 

We  must  outgrow  the  sit-still  and  keep-still 
method  of  school  work.  I  want  to  see  our 
country  school-houses  without  screwed-down 
seats,  and  to  see  the  children  put  to  work  with 
tools  and  soils  and  plants  and  problems.  A 
child  does  not  learn  much  when  he  is  silent 
and  inactive.  Out  of  this  work  will  grow  the 
necessity  of  learning  to  read  and  figure  and 
draw. 

This  redirection  of  educational  effort  will, 
of  course,  come  slowly.  A  new  spirit  is  arising 
among  school  patrons  here  and  there,  and  this 
will  aid  to  bring  it  about.  The  people  must 
feel  that  they,  themselves,  have  something  to 
say  about  the  schools,  and  that  all  power  is 
not  centered  in  departments  and  boards.  And 
then  society  should  see  that  useful  ideas  of 
education  are  sown  among  its  members. 

If  these  redirective  forces  are  to  be  set  in 
motion  and  made  effective,  much  public  money 
will  be  required.  This  money  will  not  be  a 
gift  to  an  agricultural  class,  but  an  appropria- 
tion to  aid  in  developing  the  internal  re- 
sources of  the  country.  The  farmer  is  not  a 


140       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

subject  for  chanty ;  but  it  is  due  him  that 
handicaps  be  removed  and  that  he  be  allowed 
full  opportunity  for  development.  Special 
legislation  of  many  kinds,  from  tariffs  to  cor- 
poration laws,  have  favored  other  and  central- 
ized interests,  and  have  encouraged  the  growth 
in  many  quarters  of  colossal  selfishness.  The 
farmer  has  been  the  forgotten  man.  What  we 
appropriate  to  him  for  education  and  know- 
ledge is  a  small  offset  to  the  special  privileges 
that  have  been  given  to  other  men ;  it  is  his 
peculiar  recognition  from  government,  and 
education,  in  the  end,  should  produce  a  more 
wholesome  result  than  any  other  aid  that  gov- 
ernment can  render  to  its  citizens,  and  this 
should  inspire  the  best  kind  of  voluntary 
effort. 

Importance  of  the  rural  school. 

In  our  eagerness  to  serve  the  agricultural 
interests,  we  are  likely  to  place  relatively  too 
much  emphasis  on  the  importance  of  establish- 
ing of  new  institutions,  whereas  the  greatest 
effectiveness  and  even  the  quickest  results  may 


Merits  of  the  Rural  School       141 

very  likely  be  attained  by  utilizing  the  agen- 
cies already  in  existence.  It  is  easy,  for 
example,  to  ridicule  the  country  school  and 
then  to  plead  for  new  isolated  schools  in  which 
to  teach  agriculture ;  but  in  so  doing  we  may 
forget  that  isolated  special  schools  cannot 
serve  all  the  people  and  that  they  also  tend  to 
isolate  the  subject.  The  present  rural  schools, 
with  all  their  shortcomings,  are  good  schools 
because  (i)  they  are  already  in  existence,  (2) 
they  are  the  schools  of  all  the  people,  (3)  they 
are  small  and  thereby  likely  to  be  native  and 
simple,  (4)  they  are  many  and  therefore  close 
to  the  actual  conditions  of  the  people.  I  would 
utilize  them  to  the  fullest;  and  in  the  end 
these  schools,  when  redirected,  will  present 
the  solution  of  the  problem  of  rural  edu- 
cation. In  the  remarks  that  follow,  I  mean 
no  criticism  of  teachers  in  the  rural  districts. 
From  long  association  with  them,  I  have  come 
to  regard  them  as  a  devoted  class,  and  they 
comprise  some  of  the  best  teachers  that  I  have 
known.  They  deserve  every  recognition  and 
encouragement. 


142        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

A  consideration  of  the  school  question  will 
enable  me  at  once  to  illustrate  what  I  mean  by 
the  redirecting  of  rural  institutions  and  also 
allow  me  to  suggest  the  relation  of  such  redi- 
rection to  local  pride  and  initiative.  These 
rural  schools  fail  because  they  do  not  meet  the 
living  needs  of  the  people.  They  do  not  teach 
the  objects  and  affairs  of  their  environment. 
They  are  not  vital.  But  in  all  this  they  differ 
from  all  other  schools  only  in  the  fact  that 
their  progress  is  somewhat  slower.  Neither  are 
city  schools  often  really  vital.  Neither,  per- 
haps, is  the  greater  part  of  our  college  instruc- 
tion. Until  very  recent  years  even  the  agricul- 
tural colleges  have  not  taught  vitally.  The 
public  schools  do  not  yet  teach  the  essentials. 
The  first  object  of  any  school  should  be  to 
teach  persons  how  to  live. 

But  with  all  their  shortcomings,  the  rural 
schools  are  really  making  progress ;  and  I  am 
sure  that  some  of  the  speakers  whom  I  have 
recently  heard  do  not  know  how  considerable 
this  progress  is.  Unfortunately,  it  cannot  be 
recorded  in  statistics ;  it  is  a  new  atmosphere, 


Present  Proposals  143 

a  progress  in  the  spirit  of  the  school  and  in  a 
somewhat  changed  outlook  rather  than  in  the 
adding  of  subjects  under  new  names. 

Three  movements  looking  in  some  measure 
to  the  supplanting  or  reorganizing  of  rural 
schools  are  now  well  set  in, —  (i)  the  granting 
of  aid  by  Congress  for  the  schools  of  the 
people,  (2)  the  consolidating  of  existing 
schools  in  order  to  increase  the  efficiency  of 
teaching,  (3)  the  establishing  of  secondary 
schools  for  agriculture.  All  these  movements 
will  contribute  to  the  solution  of  the  rural 
school  problem,  but  it  maybe  well  to  examine 
them  somewhat  carefully. 

( i )  The  subject  of  federal  aid. 

Bills  are  before  Congress  to  grant  federal 
aid  to  secondary  and  normal  schools  in  the 
states.  It  is  a  new  policy.  Its  consequences 
should  be  carefully  considered. 

It  is  relatively  easy  to  secure  money  from 
Congress,  because  it  is  least  accountable  to 
local  public  sentiment  and  because  its  funds 
are  not  derived  from  direct  taxation.  The  ten- 


144        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

dency  is  to  go  more  and  more  to  Congress  for 
funds,  even  for  purposes  that  should  be  cared 
for  by  the  states  and  the  localities.  We  must 
be  careful  to  teach  that  persons  do  not  rely 
on  some  one  else  or  on  government.  Congress 
may  well  undertake  new  work  in  the  states 
for  the  express  purpose  of  showing  the  way 
and  stimulating  local  ambition  when  the  work 
is  of  such  magnitude  that  states  or  localities 
cannot  undertake  it.  The  establishing  of  a 
system  of  agricultural  colleges  and  experi- 
ment stations  is  a  case  in  point.  It  is  quite 
another  matter,  however,  for  work  that  orig- 
inates in  localities  and  belongs  to  them  to 
go  past  the  commonwealth  and  to  appeal  to 
Congress.  If  states  and  provinces  should 
exist  at  all,  they  should  take  care,  as  much  as 
possible,  of  their  own  internal  development. 

It  js  indisputable  that  the  common  schools 
need  more  funds.  Part  of  the  funds  should 
come  from  the  localities  themselves.  Part 
should  come  from  the  state.  Whether  any 
part  should  come  from  the  federal  govern- 
ment, thereby  expressing  the  national  spirit  in 


Local  Impotency  145 

education,  is  perhaps  largely  an  academic  ques- 
tion; but  the  methods  of  its  disbursement  and 
control,  if  federal  money  should  be  given,  is  a 
subject  of  the  first  importance  to  the  main- 
tenance of  local  institutions.  The  opportunity  of 
full  initiative  and  independence  should  be  pop- 
ular rather  than  official;  and  every  safeguard 
should  be  taken  to  see  that  national  schools 
should  not  be  forced  into  close  uniformity. 

The  lack  of  pride  and  gumption  in  our  rural 
schools  is  probably  already  due  in  no  small 
part  to  the  removal  of  motive-power  from  the 
locality  to  the  state  capital.  I  have  in  mind  a 
rural  school  on  the  premises  of  which  a  neigh- 
bor had  placed  personal  property.  For  years 
the  teacher  and  members  of  the  local  board 
and  isolated  friends  had  complained  and 
threatened.  The  material  remained.  Finally  a 
visitor  reported  the  matter  to  the  state  author- 
ities some  two  hundred  miles  away,  and  the 
nuisance  was  forthwith  removed.  A  school 
locality  that  is  impotent  to  remove  a  pile  of 
lumber  is  also  impotent  to  make  very  much 
progress  in  its  schooling. 

J 


146       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

The  small  effect  of  "arbor  day"  is  also  most 
surprising.  After  all  these  years  of  planting, 
and  of  song  and  recitation  about  it,  the  com- 
munities have  not  yet  risen  to  the  point 
of  having  well-planted  school-premises.  The 
larger  part  of  the  grounds  are  yet  bare  of 
good  trees.  This  would  not  be  so  if  there 
were  any  genuine  local  interest  in  the  subject 
of  improvement  of  school-grounds. 

Whether  the  federal  government  may  prop- 
erly aid  the  common  schools  in  the  several 
states  is  much  more  than  a  question  of  state 
or  community  opportunity,  however.  It  is 
often  a  question  of  community  ability.  A 
child  ought  not  to  be  disadvantaged  by  the 
locality  in  which  he  lives.  All  should  have 
equal  educational  opportunity.  The  ratio  of 
population  to  taxable  property  and  to  the 
labor  demand,  differs  widely  in  different  com- 
munities; and  society  must  in  some  way  see 
that  chances  are  evened  up  in  the  communities 
that  cannot  support  proper  schools.  How  far 
this  shall  be  done  by  state  and  federal  agen- 
cies may  perhaps  be  a  matter  of  detail;  but  it 


Movement  for  Consolidated  Schools  147 

should  still  be  possible  to  develop  enterprise 
and  responsibility  at  home. 

(2)   The  consolidating  of  schools. 

The  arguments  in  favor  of  consolidation 
of  schools  are  many  and  important.  By  con- 
solidation, stronger  teaching  units  are  secured  ; 
more  money  is  available  for  the  employing  of 
teachers  and  the  providing  of  equipment ; 
special  subjects  can  be  given  adequate  atten- 
tion. The  objections  are  many,  and  most  of 
those  commonly  urged  are  trivial  and  tem- 
porary. The  greatest  difficulty  in  bringing 
about  the  consolidation  of  schools  is  a  deep- 
seated  prejudice  against  giving  up  the  old 
school.  This  prejudice  is  usually  not  expressed 
in  words.  Often  it  is  really  unconscious  to  the 
person  himself.  Yet  I  wonder  whether  right 
here  does  not  lie  a  fundamental  and  valid  rea- 
son against  the  uniform  consolidation  of  rural 
schools, — a  feeling  that  when  the  school  leaves 
the  locality  something  vital  has  gone  out  of 
the  neighborhood.  Local  pride  has  been 
offended.  Initiative  has  been  removed  one 


148        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

step  farther  away.  The  locality  has  lost  some- 
thing. It  is  a  question,  even,  whether  the 
annual  school  meeting  is  to  be  lightly  surren- 
dered, whether  it  is  not  worth  keeping  as  an 
arena  for  the  clearing  of  local  differences,  and 
as  a  possible  nucleus  of  a  useful  institution. 

I  would  establish  an  institution  in  every 
locality  rather  than  banish  one  from  it.  I 
should  like  to  see  on  every  important  four 
corners  in  the  open  country  four  institutions, 
— an  assembling  place,  as  a  town  meeting  hall 
or  grange  hall ;  a  building  that  stands  for  the 
products  and  history  of  the  community,  into 
which  could  be  gathered  a  local  museum,  his- 
torical mementos,  biographies  of  the  inhabit- 
ants, and  in  which  there  might  be  a  useful 
library;  on  another  corner  a  redirected  rural 
school ;  and  on  the  other  a  redirected  church 
that  should  strike  its  roots  deep  into  the 
native  affairs  of  the  community. 

I  fear  that  much  of  the  impulse  for  the  consol- 
idation of  schools  is  a  reflection  of  the  central- 
ized formal  city  graded  school;  but  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  these  institutions  are  to  be 


Consolidation  of  Schools          149 

the  most  important  or  dominating  public 
schools  of  the  future.  The  small  rural  school, 
with  all  its  weaknesses,  has  the  tremendous 
advantage  of  directness  and  simplicity.  It  is  a 
great  question  whether  it  would  be  improved 
by  a  rigid  system  of  grading.  It  is  a  question, 
in  fact,  whether  the  present  graded  schools 
do  not  still  carry~the  onus  of  proving  them- 
selves. 

Unquestionably,  consolidation  of  rural 
schools  is  often  advantageous.  It  is  to  be  ad- 
vised whenever  it  seems  to  be  necessary  for  ped- 
agogical reasons.  It  is  often  urged,  however, 
for  financial  reasons ;  but  this  in  the  long  run, 
is  not  reason  enough.  We  maintain  our  canals 
and  government  work  at  public  expense.  The 
state  must  cooperate  in  the  maintainance  of 
its  detached  schools,  by  direct  appropriations, 
if  necessary,  to  their  localities,  always  on  the 
condition,  however,  that  all  effective  control 
does  not  pass  out  of  the  community.  Con- 
solidation of  schools  is  much  more  than  an 
educational  question.  It  touches  the  very 
quick  of  local  pride  and  progress, 


150       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

(3)  Special  agricultural  schools. 

I  speak  now  of  the  separating  of  educa- 
tion in  agriculture.  My  readers  know  that 
many  years  ago^there  was  long-continued  agita- 
tion for  agricultural  and  other  industrial 
education.  Necessarily  the  discussion  took 
issue  with  the  existing  order  of  education. 
The  movement  was  essentially  a  revolt.  This 
long-fought  revolution  culminated  in  the 
Land-Grant  Act  of  1862.  The  collegiate  grade 
or  phase  of  agricultural  education  was  estab- 
lished forever.  This  new  education  was  so 
unlike  the  old  education  in  spirit  that  new  col- 
leges were  established  independently  of  the 
old.  The  new  education  was  isolated.  In 
some  instances,  the  new  education  was  made  a 
department  in  old  institutions,  but  in  such 
conditions  it  did  not  thrive.  The  separate  col- 
leges led  the  way.  Being  free,  they  could  do 
as  they  chose.  They  did  not  need  to  conform 
to  old  customs  and  methods ;  yet  it  is  worthy 
of  comment  that,  although  being  free  they 
were  nevertheless  bound,  for  they  carried  the 
new  work  as  a  recitation-subject  and  book- 


Early  Separation  151 

subject  and  lecture-subject,  following  the  tra- 
ditional pedagogical  systems.  Long  the  new 
education  lay  in  a  pupa  stage.  The  mechanic 
arts  phase  first  got  its  wings.  Now  the  agri- 
cultural phase  is  bursting  its  shell.  But  we 
find  that  the  separate  colleges  no  longer  hold 
the  exclusive  leadership.  We  have  found  that 
education  that  makes  use  of  agricultural  sub- 
jects is  education,  just  as  much  as  that  which 
uses  mathematics  or  mental  philosophy;  and 
this  being  the  case,  they  all  live  together  in 
harmony.  "  Culture  "  and  "  mental  discipline  " 
are  not  mere  abstractions :  they  are  the  results 
of  good  concrete  work. 

Not  only  do  they  live  together  in  harmony, 
but  all  of  them  gain  much  from  the  association. 
This  new  education  has  even  put  a  new  atti- 
tude into  much  of  the  literary  teaching.  More- 
over, I  am  very  sure  that  the  new  industrial 
and  personal  education  has  saved  the  old  col- 
lege and  university  from  extinction ;  or,  to 
put  it  in  another  way,  that  if  they  had  not 
taken  it  in,  the  evolution  of  our  present-day 
collegiate  education  would  have  arisen  on  new 


152       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

foundations,  and  in  time  the  old  foundations 
would  have  been  left  hopelessly  stranded. 
Perhaps  some  of  the  old-fashioned  institutions 
that  are  isolated  in  spirit  are  stranded  now; 
but  they  may  not  know  it. 

In  the  meantime,  the  separate  agricultural 
colleges  have  maintained  themselves,  but  they 
are  no  longer  separate  in  spirit.  They  have 
allied  themselves  so  far  as  they  are  able,  with 
all  public  movements  looking  to  the  better- 
ment of  the  "industrial  classes,"  as  the  Land- 
Grant  Act  states  it  "in  the  several  pursuits 
and  professions  in  life."  The  separate  colleges 
have  their  work  to  do  as  heretofore,  and  they 
will  increase  in  efficiency,  but  they  are  special 
institutions,  standing  apart.  We  now  see  that 
these  colleges,  good  as  they  are,  do  not  satisfy 
the  needs  for  collegiate  training  in  agriculture, 
although  contributing  towards  that  end;  for 
all  the  people  must  be  served,  agricultural 
education  is,  properly,  not  class  education,  and 
all  institutions,  on  their  own  account,  need  the 
human  and  contemporaneous  spirit.  In  all  insti- 
tutions of  the  people  there  should  be  oppor- 


Separatist  Movement  153 

tunity  for  training  in  the  affairs  of  life.  The 
agricultural  department  or  college  of  an  exist- 
ing so-called  "liberal  culture"  university  or 
college  has  been  able,  so  far  as  it  has  been 
efficient,  to  drive  home  the  personal  and  vital 
subjects  and  to  cause  them  to  be  recognized  as 
a  coordinate  part  of  a  broad  education.  The 
rise  of  public  sentiment,  and  the  growth  of 
wisdom  among  educators,  are  welding  the  old 
and  the  new :  the  agricultural  teaching  is  be- 
ing liberalized;  the  traditional  teaching  is 
being  practicalized. 

Just  now  another  movement  for  personal 
education  is  well  set  in.  It  is  the  movement 
for  the  teaching  of  agriculture  in  the  common 
schools.  Significantly  enough,  it  is  mostly  a 
separatist  movement.  We  are  attempting  to 
isolate  it  by  establishing  separate  agricultural 
schools  or  by  organizing  separate  classes  in 
existing  schools.  The  establishing  of  separate 
schools  is  repeating  for  the  common  schools 
what  has  been  the  history  of  the  development 
of  the  colleges.  It  assumes  that  the  existing 
schools  should  not  teach  agriculture  or  that 


154       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

they  cannot  teach  it  effectively,  and  that  such 
teaching  should  be  isolated  and  that  it  exists 
for  a  class.  Persons  in  the  localities  in  which 
the  separate  schools  are  established  will  bene- 
fit by  them.  Persons  who  attend  other  schools 
will  be  debarred  the  privilege  of  being  taught 
in  terms  of  the  country  environment. 

I  hold  that  education  in  terms  of  the  envir- 
onment is  the  right  of  every  citizen ;  and  in 
the  open  country  this  kind  of  education  is 
agricultural  education,  whether  so  called  or 
not.  But  every  citizen  can  secure  this  privilege 
only  when  he  can  have  access  to  it  in  any  of 
the  public  schools ;  we  know  that  all  the  public 
schools  together  can  barely  reach  all  the 
people.  In  New  York  state,  for  example,  there 
are  some  fifty-five  agricultural  counties.  There 
are  some  227,000  farms.  If  each  of  these 
counties  had  an  agricultural  high  school  gradu- 
ating fifty  pupils  each  year,  to  give  only  one 
boy  from  each  farm  in  the  state  an  agricultural 
course  would  require  eighty-two  years;  and 
new  generations  are  coming  on  in  the 
meantime. 


The  Separate  Schools  155 

It  is  well  to  consider  what  the  effect  of  this 
system  of  isolation  will  be  on  educational 
policy.  The  people  will  patronize  these  agri- 
cultural schools  because  they  will  be  useful  and 
significant  schools.  More  than  most  other 
schools,  they  will  teach  the  essentials, — that  is, 
they  will  teach  persons  how  to  live.  More  of 
these  schools  will  be  demanded.  A  duplicate 
system  of  public  education  will  arise.  It  is  easy 
to  see  the  ultimate  result:  if  the  common 
schools  do  not  redirect  themselves,  they  are 
lost. 

I  mean  to  say  that  the  common  schools  need 
agriculture  in  order  to  save  themselves.  Of 
course,  I  mean  agricultural  education  in  its 
broadest  and  rightful  sense, — the  training  of  a 
man  by  means  of  country  life  or  rural  subjects, 
not  merely  the  making  of  farmers.  My  old- 
time  school  friend  will  laugh  at  me  when  I  tell 
him  that  his  school  is  in  danger,  but  I  cannot 
be  mistaken,  and  for  the  very  good  reason 
that  his  school  is  inadequate. 

Gradually,  however,  we  shall  find  the  public 
schools  readjusting  themselves,  They  will 


156        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

reach  out  and  take  in  the  essentials.  Then 
training  by  means  of  agriculture  will  take  its 
rightful  place  as  a  part  of  a  normal  and  natural 
school  system,  by  which  all  the  people  every- 
where— and  not  alone  in  some  isolated  school 
— may  benefit.  Education  by  means  of  agricul- 
ture is  public  education. 

And  the  separate  agricultural  schools?  Well, 
we  may  prophesy  from  the  experience  of  the 
separate  agricultural  colleges.  These  separate 
schools  will  be  wonderfully  effective,  so  far  as 
they  are  in  the  hands  of  men  who  are  not  tied 
to  old  points  of  view.  For  some  years  they 
will  hold  the  leadership.  They  will  develop 
public  sentiment.  They  should  always  remain 
most  effective  agents  for  certain  kinds  of 
teaching.  But  they  will  always  be  more  or  less 
special  schools.  They  will  not  satisfy  all  the 
needs  for  school  training  by  means  of  agricul- 
ture. There  will  be  some  states  and  localities 
that  will  not  establish  them,  and  these  locali- 
ties will  be  considered  to  be  behind  the  times. 
Moreover,  such  isolated  schools  are  likely  in 
the  long  run  to  deaden  initiative  in  the  many 


The  Separate  Schools  157 

other  localities  that  may  most  need  them;  and 
they  are  one  step  further  removed  from  the 
people.  So  far  as  they  tend  to  vitalize,  by 
their  example,  the  whole  native  school  system, 
in  so  far  will  their  effectiveness  be  beyond  dis- 
pute ;  and  this  of  itself  will  be  worth  all  they 
cost.  They  will  be  pioneers.  The  real  and 
lasting  progress,  however,  is  to  be  made 
by  those  localities  that  first  completely  redi- 
rect the  existing  schools  in  the  interest  of  all 
the  people. 

The  redirecting  of  the  rural  school. 

Having  now  considered  some  of  the  new 
external  influences  that  are  likely  to  modify 
the  common  schools,  I  may  explain  what  I 
mean  by  the  redirection  of  the  schools  them- 
selves. All  effective  education  should  (i) 
develop  out  of  experience  ;  (2)  this  experience 
should  have  relation  to  vocation  or  to  the 
pupil's  part  in  life;  and  (3)  every  school 
should  be  the  natural  expression  of  its  com- 
munity. If  these  statements  are  accepted,  then 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  mere  addition  of  a  sub- 


158        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

ject  here  and  there  to  the  school  curriculum 
may  not  be  sufficient  to  put  the  school  into 
real  relationship  with  its  environment. 

I  am  in  sympathy,  as  I  have  said,  with  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  few  secondary  special  schools 
for  teaching  agriculture  whenever  they  can  be 
well  organized  and  the  subjects  thoroughly 
well  taught.  I  am  also  in  sympathy  with 
the  introducing  of  agriculture  as  a  special 
subject  in  rural  schools  whenever  it  can  be 
effectively  handled.  These  two  agencies  ought 
to  be  effective  in  arousing  and  crystallizing 
public  sentiment  to  the  need  of  a  new  kind  of 
education.  However,  these  cannot  meet  the 
problem  of  rural  education.  The  final  inef- 
fectiveness of  merely  adding  agriculture  to 
the  curriculum  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  does 
not  constitute  of  itself  a  real  redirection  of 
the  whole  point  of  view  of  the  school,  al- 
though it  may  be  a  most  useful  means  of 
starting  a  revolution  that  will  bring  about 
that  desirable  end. 

If  we  establish  special  schools  for  agricul- 
ture, they  should  supplement  the  public 


Laboratory  Teaching  159 

school  system,  affording  opportunity  for 
somewhat  advanced  training  to  those  pupils 
that  are  particularly  interested  in  the  subject ; 
they  should  never  be  the  instruments  of  divert- 
ing public  attention  from  the  necessity  of 
allowing  every  school  and  every  pupil  the 
advantage  of  training  by  means  of  agriculture 
and  industrial  subjects. 

I  am  afraid  that  we  are  accepting,  without 
question,  the  present  method  of  the  high 
school  and  college,  particularly  its  laboratory 
method.  In  the  argument  for  separated  rural 
schools  I  am  always  struck  with  the  plea  that 
good  laboratories  may  be  secured.  A  good 
part  of  this  argument  comes  from  college  men. 
It  does  not  at  all  follow  that  our  four-wall  lab- 
oratory methods  are  as  useful  for  the  second- 
ary schools  as  for  colleges  and  high  schools. 
In  fact,  it  is  a  question  whether  much  of  our 
laboratory  work  is  really  worth  the  while,  as 
compared  with  good  natural  field-work  under 
the  conditions  that  are  everywhere  at  hand. 
The  agricultural  schools  and  colleges,  of  all 
others,  should  develop  the  highest  kind  of 


160       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

nature-teaching.  Yet  they  are  likely  to  follow 
the  tendency  of  the  time  and  to  produce  a 
class  of  teacher  that  is  dominated  by  the  for- 
mal laboratory.  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  the 
greatest  professors  of  agriculture  or  agronomy 
or  horticulture  or  animal  husbandry  will  be  of 
the  field-naturalist  type.  Laboratory-teaching 
may  be  pedagogically  just  as  incorrect  as 
book-teaching. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  have  an  entirely  new 
curriculum  in  order  to  redirect  the  rural 
school.  If  geography  is  taught,  let  it  be 
taught  in  the  terms  of  the  environment.  Geog- 
raphy deals  with  the  surface  of  the  earth.  It 
may  well  concern  itself  with  the  school - 
grounds,  the  highways,  the  fields  and  what 
grow  in  them,  the  forests,  hills  and  streams, 
the  hamlet,  the  people  and  their  affairs.  We 
are  now  interesting  the  child  in  the  earth  on 
which  he  stands,  and,  as  his  mind  grows,  we 
take  him  out  to  the  larger  view.  A  good  part 
of  geography  in  a  rural  community  is,  or 
should  be,  agriculture,  whether  so  called  or 
not. 


Redirected  Arithmetic  161 

Similar  remarks  may  be  made  of  arithmetic. 
The  principles  of  number  are  everywhere  the 
same ;  but  there  is  no  reason  why  practice 
problems  should  not  have  local  application. 
In  my  day,  at  least,  a  good  part  of  the  prac- 
tice problems  were  mere  numerical  puzzles. 
I  fancy  that  even  at  the  present  time  the  old 
people  are  interested  in  the  problems  that  the 
child  takes  home  merely  because  the  child  is 
in  a  fix  and  his  predicament  appeals  to  their 
sympathies.  When,  however,  the  child  takes 
home  a  problem  that  has  application  to  the 
daily  life,  there  is  a  different  attitude  on  the 
part  of  the  parents,  not  only  to  the  problem, 
but  to  the  school  that  gave  the  problem.  A 
good  part  of  agricultural  practice  can  be  ex- 
pressed in  mathematical  form.  How  to  meas- 
ure land,  how  to  figure  the  cost  of  operation, 
how  to  compound  a  ration  or  a  spray  mix- 
ture, how  much  it  costs  to  fight  bugs  in  the 
potato  field,  the  mathematics  of  rainfall  and 
utilization  of  water  by  plants  —  these,  and  a 
thousand  other  problems  that  are  personal  and 
sensible,  could  be  made  the  means  of  so  redi- 
K 


162       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

recting  number  work  as  to  make  it  a  mighty 
force  in  putting  the  school  into  relation  with 
the  community. 

My  reader  can  at  once  make  applications  of 
this  line  of  thought  to  the  reading,  to  the 
manual  training,  and  to  the  other  customary 
work  of  the  school.  Manual  training  develops 
chiefly  skill:  it  does  not  articulate  with  life. 
The  study  of  history  should  result  in  better 
local  civic  ideas.  Text  books  err  in  merely 
making  applications  of  their  subject  here  and 
there :  they  need  a  complete  change  in  point 
of  view  and  in  method. 

You  have  only  to  consider  the  school-houses 
to  see  that  the  rural  school  is  in  a  state  of 
arrested  development.  Go  with  me  from 
Maine  to  Minnesota  and  back  again  and  you 
will  see  in  the  open  country  practically  one 
kind  of  school-house,  and  this  is  the  kind  in 
which  our  fathers  went  to  school.  There  is 
nothing  about  it  to  suggest  the  activities  of 
the  community  or  to  be  attractive  to  children. 
Standing  in  an  agricultural  country,  it  is  scant 
of  land  and  bare  of  trees.  I  think  that  if  a 


New  School-houses  Needed       163 

room  or  wing  were  added  to  every  rural 
school-house  to  which  children  could  take 
their  collections  or  in  which  they  could  do 
work  with  their  hands,  it  would  start  a  revo- 
lution in  the  ideals  of  country-school  teaching 
even  with  our  present  school  teachers.  Such  a 
room  would  challenge  every  person  in  the 
community.  They  would  want  to  know  what 
relation  hand-training  and  nature-study  and 
similar  activities  bear  to  teaching.  Such  a 
room  would  ask  a  hundred  questions  every 
day.  The  teacher  could  not  refuse  to  try  to 
answer  them. 

The  problem  of  the  rural  school  is  not  so 
much  one  of  subjects  as  of  methods  of  teach- 
ing. The  best  part  of  any  school  is  its  spirit : 
I  can  conceive  of  a  school  in  which  no  agricul- 
ture is  taught  as  a  separate,  which  will  still  pre- 
sent the  subject  vitally  from  day  to  day  by 
means  of  the  customary  studies  and  exercises. 
The  agricultural  colleges,  for  example,  have 
all  along  made  the  mistake  of  trying  to  make 
farmers  of  their  students  by  compelling  them 
to  take  certain  "practical"  courses,  forgetting 


164       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

that  the  spirit  and  method  of  the  institution 
is  what  sends  the  youth  back  to  the  land. 

Of  course  this  new  school  method  will  de- 
mand trained  teachers,  but  it  should  be  no 
more  difficult  to  train  them  into  this  point  of 
view  than  as  mere  specialists.*  The  whole 
enterprise  needs  to  be  developed  natively  and 
from  a  new  point  of  view;  for  in  an  agricul- 
tural country  agriculture  should  be  as  much  a 
part  of  the  school  as  oxygen  is  a  part  of  the 
air.  I  would  not  isolate  agriculture  from  the 
environment  of  life  in  order  to  teach  it :  I 
would  teach  the  entire  environment. 

The  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment  stations. 

Ten,  or  even  five,  years  ago  I  might  have 
said  that  there  were  need  of  redirection  in  the 
agricultural  work  of  the  colleges  of  agriculture 
and  mechanic  arts,  but  happily  these  institutions 
have  now  slipped  their  academic  bonds.  They 
are  getting  hold  of  the  real  objects  and  the  real 

*  My  own  view  of  the  ways  to  secure  teachers  for  these  sub- 
jects is  expressed  in  Bulletin  No.  i,  1908,  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education,  "On  the  Training  of  Persons  to  Teach 
Agriculture  in  the  Public  Schools." 


Colleges  of  Agriculture  165 

affairs  of  life ;  but  I  fear,  however,  that  in  the 
very  prosperity  of  these  redirected  institutions 
there  lies  danger  of  undertaking  kinds  of  work 
that  partake  overmuch  of  exploitation.  Land 
and  animals  and  orchards  and  machines  and 
crops  are  no  longer  regarded  as  mere  museums : 
they  are  laboratories  and  laboratory  materials 
to  be  used  for  the  same  purpose  and  in  the 
same  pedagogical  spirit  as  the  geologist  uses 
rocks  or  the  chemist  uses  chemicals  and  chem- 
ical problems.  We  now  have  class-rooms  into 
which  cattle  and  sheep  and  other  animals  may 
be  taken  for  study.  These  animals  are  labora- 
tory material.  If  it  is  worth  while  to  study  live 
bacteria  and  live  insects,  it  is  equally  worth 
while  to  study  live  cows.  We  have  studied  the 
fleas  and  other  parasites  that  infest  our  domes- 
tic animals  before  we  have  studied  the  animals 
themselves,  so  successfully  have  we  avoided  the 
large  and  significant  things. 

In  other  words,  the  spirit  of  the  modern 
agricultural  college  is  to  teach  in  terms  of  the 
actual  daily  life,  making  nature  and  the  farm  a 
real  part  of  one's  living  and  the  foundation  of 


166       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

one's  philosophy  of  life.  The  lack  of  appre- 
ciation of  this  laboratory  significance  has  pre- 
vented the  proper  growth  of  these  agricultural 
institutions.  They  tell  us  that  these  colleges 
are  now  demanding  enormous  sums,  but  this 
is  because  we  have  never  known  how  much 
money  they  have  needed  to  make  them  effec- 
tive. Never  have  they  had  money  enough  or 
freedom  enough  to  work  out  their  problem 
fundamentally.  They  are  just  beginning  to 
develop.  Agricultural  education  and  experi- 
ment is  the  most  expensive  to  maintain  of  all 
education  because  its  laboratories  are  so  large, 
so  various,  and  so  expensive  in  their  up-keep. 
Institutions  centering  about  city  ideas  receive 
no  end  of  money  and  study.  The  open  coun- 
try is  just  coming  to  its  own.  Schools  and 
colleges  are  worth  only  what  they  cost.  With 
money  and  men  working  in  state  and  national 
institutions,  the  rural  problems  can  be  solved. 
It  is  strange  that  private  benevolence  has 
not  discovered  that  the  founding  of  schools  of 
agriculture  is  one  of  the  very  best  means  of 
serving  mankind.  It  is  undoubtedly  fortunate, 


Colleges  of  Agriculture  167 

however,  that  the  people  themselves  have 
endowed  these  colleges,  for  this  ensures  that 
the  institutions  become  and  remain  democratic, 
teachable  and  close  to  common  problems. 
These  colleges  will  place  on  the  farms  a  class 
of  educated  persons,  as  the  colleges  of 
mechanic  arts  have  placed  such  persons  in  the 
shops  and  in  business. 

The  colleges  of  agriculture  are  essential 
because  they  are  leading  the  way  to  a  really 
useful  training  for  country  life.  Our  agricul- 
tural problem  is  one  of  constant  readjustment 
to  conditions,  and  this  readjustment  can  pro- 
gress only  through  the  diffusion  of  greater 
intelligence.  Knowledge  and  education  lie  at 
the  very  foundation  of  the  welfare  of  the  open 
country.  Information  and  knowledge,  how- 
ever, and  even  education,  do  not  of  themselves 
constitute  reform  or  progress.  We  need  legis- 
lation and  broad  redirection  of  social  and 
economic  forces ;  but  education  lies  behind 
and  at  the  bottom  of  all  these  movements  and 
without  it  no  lasting  progress  is  possible. 

Interest  in  education  by  means  of  agricul* 


168        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

ture  is  no  longer  local.  It  is  now  more  in  the 
public  mind  than  any  other  phase  of  educa- 
tion. It  is  interesting  to  note  the  zest  with 
which  the  public  is  discovering  the  truths  that 
the  good  prophets  in  the  agricultural  colleges 
announced  ten  and  twenty  years  ago.  The 
leadership  in  rural  affairs  is  rapidly  passing  to 
the  interests  that  associate  themselves  with 
the  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment  sta- 
tions. In  twenty-five  years  there  will  be  a  new 
political  philosophy  of  the  open  country  born 
out  of  these  institutions. 

A  mere  enumeration  of  the  departments 
comprising  a  modern  college  of  agriculture 
indicates  that  while  the  main  or  central  busi- 
ness of  such  college  is  to  teach  the  science 
and  the  practice  of  farming,  it  really  stands 
for  the  human  affairs  of  the  whole  open  coun- 
try, taking  this  field  because  it  is  indivisi- 
ble and  also  because  other  institutions  have 
passed  it  by.  There  are  institutions  called 
universities  that  have  a  lesser  scope  than  these 
leading  colleges  of  agriculture,  and  in  which 
the  business  affairs  are  less  than  in  a  modern 


Mission  of  the  Colleges  169 

dairy  department  of  one  of  these  colleges. 
These  institutions  mean  not  one  iota  less  than 
the  redirecting  of  the  practices  and  ideals  of 
country  life,  and  they  are  today  making  the 
greatest  single  contribution  to  constructive 
pedagogical  policies  and  for  the  very  good 
reason  that  they  deal  with  the  commonplace 
facts  and  necessities  of  life.  There  was  a  day 
when  universities  tolerated  instruction  in  agri- 
culture. The  time  will  soon  be,  if  it  is  not 
already  here,  when  a  university  that  is  a  uni- 
versity must  include  agriculture. 

The  extension  work  of  the  colleges. 

The  extension  effort  is  the  most  significant 
recent  development  of  these  colleges.  It  is 
an  attempt  to  put  the  college  in  the  way  of 
aiding  every  man  to  help  himself  on  his  own 
farm.  In  this  effort  they  have  gone  farther 
than  any  other  institutions  and  they  are  setting 
an  example  for  all  institutions.  Demonstration 
work,  reading-courses,  surveys,  and  similar 
enterprises,  which  are  outgrowths  of  the  col- 
leges, are  a  part  of  this  great  extension  move- 


170       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

ment.  The  extension  work  is  the  necessary 
distributive  phase  that  aims,  even  though 
unconsciously,  to  overcome  the  effects  of  too 
much  centralization  at  a  distance.  In  spite  of 
its  crudity  and  formlessness,  it  is  perhaps  the 
directest  effort  yet  made  toward  inspiring  local 
initiative,  and  probably  the  best  single  contri- 
bution to  the  new  social  order  of  which  I  have 
been  speaking. 

The  extension  work  of  the  agricultural  col- 
leges can  hardly  be  said  to  need  redirecting, 
because  it  has  yet  scarcely  found  its  direction. 
Its  purpose  should  be  nothing  less  than  to 
reach  every  farm  and  every  farmer  within  its 
state  or  territory.  Its  purpose  is  not  academic: 
it  is  service.  But  this  work  will  find  its  great- 
est effectiveness  and  exercise  economy  of 
effort  by  dealing  more  with  small  groups 
of  men  than  with  isolated  men,  even  if  it 
is  necessary  to  organize  the  groups  in  the 
first  place.  These  groups  will  be  represented 
in  larger  organizations.  We  have  the  germ  of 
these  larger  groups  in  the  "experiment  un- 
ions "  and  similar  organizations  that  are  now 


Farmers'  Institutes  171 

arising  in  the  agricultural  colleges:  in  time 
these  will  be  the  greatest  of  farmers'  associa- 
tions, for  they  represent  the  point  of  view  of  the 
trained  man.  We  may  soon  look  for  a  larger  fed- 
eration of  these  state  units,  and  the  movement 
will  then  be  nationalized  (pages  115,  116). 

Farmers'  institutes  will  be  one  important  part 
of  this  extension  service.  These  institutes  are 
now  doing  a  great  work,  but  a  greater  awaits 
them.  They  must  be  parts  of  organized  edu- 
cational centers.  They  must  be  fertilized  by 
new  and  continuing  study.  They  must  be  in 
the  hands  of  specially  trained  men  differing 
from  both  the  college  professor  type  and  the 
so-called  practical  farmer  type.  We  have  not 
yet  consciously  trained  such  men.  These  insti- 
tutes will  fail  of  their  greatest  usefulness 
unless  they  cooperate  fully  with  Iqpal  organiza- 
tions. In  fact,  it  should  be  a  part  of  their 
work  to  establish  local  organizations  wherever 
they  go,  to  continue  and  perfect  the  work.  A 
reading-club  for  the  systematic  study  of  books 
and  journals  and  bulletins  should  be  the  result 
of  every  institute. 


172        The  State  and  the  Farmer 

These  brief  remarks  on  the  colleges  of  agri- 
culture and  the  experiment  stations  associated 
with  them,  indicate  that  these  are  not  mere 
class  institutions  that  are  serving  only  techni- 
cal farming  needs.  Yet  there  is  constantly 
recurring  comment  in  the  press  on  the  fact 
that  not  all  the  graduates  return  to  farms  and 
not  all  the  bulletins  reach  farmers.  These  in- 
stitutions are  maintained  by  all  the  people, 
and  for  all  the  people  who  are  interested  in  the 
work  for  which  they  stand.  Neither  do  all 
graduates  of  colleges  of  law  become  lawyers, 
nor  of  colleges  of  medicine  become  physi- 
cians; nor  is  it  desirable  that  they  should. 
We  need  an  educated  laity  in  law  and  medi- 
cine, and  equally  in  agriculture,  for  the  big 
questions  are  social  and  national.  The  solu- 
tion of  the  questions  will  not  come  in  a  day; 
but  it  is  coming. 

6.     APPEAL  TO   PERSONAL   LEADERSHIP 

All  these  discussions  mean  that  there  needs 
to  be  a  redirection  of  the  point  of  view  of  the 
man.  We  have  laid  great  emphasis  on  the 


Personal  Leadership  173 

necessity  of  making  the  farm  more  remun- 
erative. Given  the  present  income,  however, 
whether  in  city  or  country,  and  it  is  possible 
for  a  man  to  lead  a  wholly  different  type  of 
life.  Much  money  is  not  essential  with  any  of 
us  to  cleanliness,  personal  pride,  sweetness  of 
temper,  honesty,  and  a  few  other  very  desir- 
able but  unpurchasable  things.  Most  of  all, 
the  countryman  needs  intellectual  horizon. 
He  needs  something  else  to  think  of.  He 
needs  to  have  a  real  personal  sympathy  with 
the  natural  objects  in  his  environment.  He 
needs  the  nature-study  outlook.  Whether  a 
man  wants  much  or  little  extraneous  enter- 
tainment, or  whether  the  country  satisfies  his 
ideals,  depends  on  his  attitude  of  mind. 

With  the  great  growth  of  urban  sentiment 
and  affairs,  we  have  overlooked  the  value  and 
significance  of  plain  country  living.  Other 
ends  in  life  have  come  into  prominence,  and 
persons  have  been  attracted  by  the  high  points 
and  by  objects  and  affairs  remote  from  them. 

Real  leadership  lies  in  taking  hold  of  the 
first  and  commonist  problems  that  present 


174       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

themselves  and  working  them  out.  Every 
community  has  its  problems.  Some  one  can 
aid  to  solve  these  problems.  The  size  of  the 
problem  does  not  matter,  if  only  some  one 
takes  hold  of  it  and  shakes  it  out.  I  like 
to  say  to  my  students  that  they  should  attack 
the  first  problem  that  presents  itself  when  they 
alight  from  the  train  on  their  return  from  col- 
lege. It  may  be  a  problem  of  roads;  of  a  poor 
school;  of  tuberculosis  in  the  herds;  of  ugly 
signs  along  the  highways,  where  no  man  has  a 
moral  right  to  advertise  private  business;  of  a 
disease  of  apple  trees ;  of  poor  seed ;  of  the 
drainage  of  a  field ;  of  an  improved  method  of 
growing  a  crop ;  of  the  care  of  the  forests. 
Any  young  man  can  concentrate  the  sentiment 
of  the  community  on  a  problem  of  the  com- 
munity. One  problem  solved  or  alleviated,  and 
another  awaits.  The  next  school  district  needs 
help,  the  next  town,  the  next  county,  the  next 
state.  Every  able  countryman  has  much  more 
power  than  he  uses. 

Throughout  this  writing,  I  intend  the  word 
man  to  include  also  the  farm  woman :  the  Ian- 


Leadership  Waits  for  One         175 

guage  lacks  a  good  word  to  imply  them  both. 
Women  may  be  leaders  in  the  large  social 
work;  and  their  influence  should  be  para- 
mount in  redirecting  the  country  home. 

The  scale  of  effort  in  the  open  country  is  so 
uniform  that  it  ought  to  be  easy  to  rise  above 
it.  I  do  not  see  how  it  is  possible  for  an 
educated  young  man  to  avoid  developing 
leadership  in  the  open  country,  if  only  he  at- 
tacks a  plain,  homely  problem,  is  not  above 
it,  and  sticks  to  it. 

It  does  not  follow  that  all  leadership  must 
be  reached  for.  It  will  come  to  a  man.  A 
student  recently  asked  my  advice  about  his 
buying  a  farm.  Since  a  mere  boy  he  had  de- 
sired to  possess  a  certain  farm  in  his  neigh- 
borhood. It  is  a  good  farm,  paying  its  owner 
a  comfortable  profit.  The  young  man  has  no 
money  and  is  working  for  his  education.  But 
now  the  owner  of  the  farm  is  about  to  retire, 
and  he  offers  the  farm  to  this  young  man  at  a 
fair  price.  The  young  man  can  borrow  the 
money  and  mortgage  the  place.  He  calculates 
that  he  can  have  it  all  paid  for  by  the  time  he 


176       The  State  and  the  Farmer 

is  forty-five,  and  the  farm  will  turn  a  good  liv- 
ing in  the  meantime.  I  think  that  the  young 
man  will  make  good.  He  knows  farming.  I 
advised  him  to  buy.  Most  men  on  salary  or 
in  other  business  than  farming  do  not  have 
their  homes  paid  for  and  their  business  all 
established  at  forty-five  years  of  age.  If  the 
young  man  has  the  farm  debt  free  and  fully 
productive  at  that  age,  and  if  he  loves  his 
neighbor  as  he  loves  his  farm,  he  will  not  need 
to  patronize  anybody:  persons  will  come  to 
him.  He  cannot  escape  being  a  marked  man. 
He  should  exemplify  Milton's  noble  line, 

"  They  also  serve  who  only  stand  and  wait." 

In  this  brief  sketch,  then,  I  have  tried  to 
show  that  the  rural  country  needs  a  new  direc- 
tion of  effort,  a  new  outlook,  and  a  new 
inspiration.  Every  rural  institution  should 
have  direct  relation  to  the  land  on  which  it 
stands.  Education  should  take  hold  of  every 
factor  that  means  much  to  the  people.  Some 
man  some  day  will  see  the  opportunity  and 
will  seize  it.  The  result  of  his  work  will  be 


Leadership  Waits  for  One         177 

simply  a  new  way  of  thinking;  but  it  will 
eventuate  into  a  new  political  and  social  econ- 
omy. When  his  statue  is  finally  cast  in  bronze, 
he  will  not  be  placed  on  a  prancing  steed  nor 
surrounded  by  any  symbols  of  carnage  or  of 
war.  He  will  be  a  plain  man  in  citizen's 
clothes  and  he  will  stand  on  the  ground ;  but 
his  face  will  be  toward  the  daylight. 


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